$100 in 1967 is worth $391 in 1990,
because prices increased 291.3% over that period, an average of
6.11% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$391
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
291.3%
Average inflation rate
6.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$391
Price difference ($100 base)
$291
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1967 → 1990
$391
$100 in 1990 → 1967
$25.55
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1990
Between 1967 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 291.3%, which works out to an average of
6.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1990: the 1967 dollar
lost 74.4% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1990 at the same ratio, 3.91: $1,000 becomes
$3,913, and $10,000 becomes $39,132.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1990
$1.00
$3.91
$5.00
$19.57
$10.00
$39.13
$20.00
$78.26
$50.00
$196
$100
$391
$500
$1,957
$1,000
$3,913
$5,000
$19,566
$10,000
$39,132
$100,000
$391,317
$1,000,000
$3,913,174
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1990
Between 1967 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 477.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 143.3%, against 291.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.11%
$391
Medical care
7.92%
$577
Energy
6.54%
$429
Housing
6.41%
$417
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.10%
$390
Food
6.08%
$388
Transportation
5.75%
$362
Apparel
3.94%
$243
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1990
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$391
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $195 by
1978, on its way to $391 in 1990; 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 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $391; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1990: $100 is worth $391 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1990/