$100 in 1960 is worth $848 in 2018,
because prices increased 748.3% over that period, an average of
3.76% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$848
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
748.3%
Average inflation rate
3.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$848
Price difference ($100 base)
$748
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1960 → 2018
$848
$100 in 2018 → 1960
$11.79
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2018
Between 1960 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 748.3%, which works out to an average of
3.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2018: the 1960 dollar
lost 88.2% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 2018 at the same ratio, 8.48: $1,000 becomes
$8,483, and $10,000 becomes $84,833.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2018
$1.00
$8.48
$5.00
$42.42
$10.00
$84.83
$20.00
$170
$50.00
$424
$100
$848
$500
$4,242
$1,000
$8,483
$5,000
$42,417
$10,000
$84,833
$100,000
$848,334
$1,000,000
$8,483,345
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2018
Between 1960 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 2073.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.0%, against 748.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.76%
$848
Medical care
5.45%
$2,174
Energy
4.02%
$982
Food
3.75%
$845
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.74%
$842
Transportation
3.43%
$707
Apparel
1.76%
$275
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$848
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $400 by
1988, on its way to $848 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $848; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2018: $100 is worth $848 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2018/