$100 in 1960 is worth $811 in 2016,
because prices increased 710.8% over that period, an average of
3.81% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$811
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
710.8%
Average inflation rate
3.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$811
Price difference ($100 base)
$711
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1960 → 2016
$811
$100 in 2016 → 1960
$12.33
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2016
Between 1960 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 710.8%, which works out to an average of
3.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2016: the 1960 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 56 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1960 amount converts to 2016 at the same ratio, 8.11: $1,000 becomes
$8,108, and $10,000 becomes $81,083.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2016
$1.00
$8.11
$5.00
$40.54
$10.00
$81.08
$20.00
$162
$50.00
$405
$100
$811
$500
$4,054
$1,000
$8,108
$5,000
$40,542
$10,000
$81,083
$100,000
$810,834
$1,000,000
$8,108,345
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2016
Between 1960 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 1979.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.8%, against 710.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.81%
$811
Medical care
5.57%
$2,079
Energy
3.89%
$846
Food
3.84%
$826
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.80%
$809
Transportation
3.41%
$654
Apparel
1.83%
$276
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–2016 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$278
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$442
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$582
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$737
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$811
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $400 by
1988, on its way to $811 in 2016; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $811; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2016: $100 is worth $811 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2016/