$100 in 1960 is worth $864 in 2019,
because prices increased 763.7% over that period, an average of
3.72% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$864
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
763.7%
Average inflation rate
3.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$864
Price difference ($100 base)
$764
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1960 → 2019
$864
$100 in 2019 → 1960
$11.58
What happened to prices between 1960 and 2019
Between 1960 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 763.7%, which works out to an average of
3.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2019: the 1960 dollar
lost 88.4% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2019 at the same ratio, 8.64: $1,000 becomes
$8,637, and $10,000 becomes $86,371.
Amount in 1960
Value in 2019
$1.00
$8.64
$5.00
$43.19
$10.00
$86.37
$20.00
$173
$50.00
$432
$100
$864
$500
$4,319
$1,000
$8,637
$5,000
$43,185
$10,000
$86,371
$100,000
$863,706
$1,000,000
$8,637,061
Inflation by spending category, 1960–2019
Between 1960 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 2135.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.4%, against 763.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.72%
$864
Medical care
5.41%
$2,235
Energy
3.91%
$961
Food
3.72%
$861
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.71%
$860
Transportation
3.37%
$705
Apparel
1.71%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 2019
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 1960–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$864
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $442 by
1990, on its way to $864 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $864; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 2019: $100 is worth $864 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-2019/