$100 in 1967 is worth $328 in 1986,
because prices increased 228.1% over that period, an average of
6.45% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$328
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
228.1%
Average inflation rate
6.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$328
Price difference ($100 base)
$228
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1967 → 1986
$328
$100 in 1986 → 1967
$30.47
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1986
Between 1967 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 228.1%, which works out to an average of
6.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1986: the 1967 dollar
lost 69.5% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1986 at the same ratio, 3.28: $1,000 becomes
$3,281, and $10,000 becomes $32,814.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1986
$1.00
$3.28
$5.00
$16.41
$10.00
$32.81
$20.00
$65.63
$50.00
$164
$100
$328
$500
$1,641
$1,000
$3,281
$5,000
$16,407
$10,000
$32,814
$100,000
$328,144
$1,000,000
$3,281,437
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1986
Between 1967 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 332.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 107.6%, against 228.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.45%
$328
Medical care
8.01%
$433
Energy
7.14%
$371
Housing
6.98%
$360
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.44%
$327
Food
6.31%
$320
Transportation
6.09%
$307
Apparel
3.92%
$208
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$328
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $170 by
1976, on its way to $328 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $328; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1986: $100 is worth $328 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1986/