$100 in 1967 is worth $148 in 1974,
because prices increased 47.6% over that period, an average of
5.72% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$148
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
47.6%
Average inflation rate
5.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$148
Price difference ($100 base)
$47.60
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1967 → 1974
$148
$100 in 1974 → 1967
$67.75
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1974
Between 1967 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 47.6%, which works out to an average of
5.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.68 buys in 1974: the 1967 dollar
lost 32.3% of its purchasing power over
these 7 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
Every 1967 amount converts to 1974 at the same ratio, 1.48: $1,000 becomes
$1,476, and $10,000 becomes $14,760.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.48
$5.00
$7.38
$10.00
$14.76
$20.00
$29.52
$50.00
$73.80
$100
$148
$500
$738
$1,000
$1,476
$5,000
$7,380
$10,000
$14,760
$100,000
$147,605
$1,000,000
$1,476,048
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1974
Between 1967 and 1974, food rose the most, up 61.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 36.1%, against 47.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.72%
$148
Food
7.10%
$162
Energy
6.95%
$160
Medical care
6.00%
$150
Housing
5.83%
$149
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.18%
$142
Transportation
4.66%
$138
Apparel
4.50%
$136
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1967, at end
1967–1970
5.12%
16.2%
$116
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$148
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $116 by
1970, on its way to $148 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $148; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1974: $100 is worth $148 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1974/