$100 in 1967 is worth $340 in 1987,
because prices increased 240.1% over that period, an average of
6.31% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$340
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
240.1%
Average inflation rate
6.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$340
Price difference ($100 base)
$240
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1967 → 1987
$340
$100 in 1987 → 1967
$29.40
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1987
Between 1967 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 240.1%, which works out to an average of
6.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1987: the 1967 dollar
lost 70.6% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1987 at the same ratio, 3.40: $1,000 becomes
$3,401, and $10,000 becomes $34,012.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1987
$1.00
$3.40
$5.00
$17.01
$10.00
$34.01
$20.00
$68.02
$50.00
$170
$100
$340
$500
$1,701
$1,000
$3,401
$5,000
$17,006
$10,000
$34,012
$100,000
$340,120
$1,000,000
$3,401,198
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1987
Between 1967 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 361.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 116.9%, against 240.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.31%
$340
Medical care
7.94%
$461
Energy
6.79%
$372
Housing
6.77%
$371
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.32%
$341
Food
6.20%
$333
Transportation
5.93%
$317
Apparel
3.95%
$217
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1987
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$340
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $181 by
1977, on its way to $340 in 1987; 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 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $340; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1987: $100 is worth $340 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1987/