$100 in 1967 is worth $408 in 1991,
because prices increased 307.8% over that period, an average of
6.03% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$408
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
307.8%
Average inflation rate
6.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$408
Price difference ($100 base)
$308
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1967 → 1991
$408
$100 in 1991 → 1967
$24.52
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1991
Between 1967 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 307.8%, which works out to an average of
6.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1991: the 1967 dollar
lost 75.5% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1991 at the same ratio, 4.08: $1,000 becomes
$4,078, and $10,000 becomes $40,778.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1991
$1.00
$4.08
$5.00
$20.39
$10.00
$40.78
$20.00
$81.56
$50.00
$204
$100
$408
$500
$2,039
$1,000
$4,078
$5,000
$20,389
$10,000
$40,778
$100,000
$407,784
$1,000,000
$4,077,844
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1991
Between 1967 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 527.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 152.4%, against 307.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.03%
$408
Medical care
7.95%
$628
Housing
6.30%
$434
Energy
6.27%
$431
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.05%
$410
Food
5.94%
$400
Transportation
5.62%
$372
Apparel
3.93%
$252
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$408
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $217 by
1979, on its way to $408 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $408; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1991: $100 is worth $408 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1991/