$100 in 1967 is worth $272 in 1981,
because prices increased 172.2% over that period, an average of
7.41% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$272
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
172.2%
Average inflation rate
7.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$272
Price difference ($100 base)
$172
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1967 → 1981
$272
$100 in 1981 → 1967
$36.74
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1981
Between 1967 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 172.2%, which works out to an average of
7.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1981: the 1967 dollar
lost 63.3% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1981 at the same ratio, 2.72: $1,000 becomes
$2,722, and $10,000 becomes $27,216.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1981
$1.00
$2.72
$5.00
$13.61
$10.00
$27.22
$20.00
$54.43
$50.00
$136
$100
$272
$500
$1,361
$1,000
$2,722
$5,000
$13,608
$10,000
$27,216
$100,000
$272,156
$1,000,000
$2,721,557
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1981
Between 1967 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 310.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 86.9%, against 172.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.41%
$272
Energy
10.61%
$411
Medical care
8.01%
$294
Housing
7.99%
$294
Transportation
7.63%
$280
Food
7.48%
$274
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.98%
$257
Apparel
4.57%
$187
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1981 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1967, at end
1967–1970
5.12%
16.2%
$116
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$247
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$272
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $148 by
1974, on its way to $272 in 1981; 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 the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $272; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1981: $100 is worth $272 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1981/