$100 in 1960 is worth $828 in 2017,
because prices increased 728.1% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$828
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
728.1%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$828
Price difference ($100 base)
$728
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1960 → 2017
$828
$100 in 2017 → 1960
$12.08
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2017
Between 1960 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 728.1%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2017: the 1960 dollar
lost 87.9% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2017 at the same ratio, 8.28: $1,000 becomes
$8,281, and $10,000 becomes $82,811.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2017
$1.00
$8.28
$5.00
$41.41
$10.00
$82.81
$20.00
$166
$50.00
$414
$100
$828
$500
$4,141
$1,000
$8,281
$5,000
$41,405
$10,000
$82,811
$100,000
$828,108
$1,000,000
$8,281,081
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2017
Between 1960 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 2031.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 174.9%, against 728.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$828
Medical care
5.51%
$2,131
Energy
3.96%
$913
Food
3.79%
$834
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.77%
$824
Transportation
3.41%
$676
Apparel
1.79%
$275
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$828
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $400 by
1988, on its way to $828 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $828; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2017: $100 is worth $828 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2017/