$100 in 1967 is worth $420 in 1992,
because prices increased 320.1% over that period, an average of
5.91% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$420
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
320.1%
Average inflation rate
5.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$420
Price difference ($100 base)
$320
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1967 → 1992
$420
$100 in 1992 → 1967
$23.81
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1992
Between 1967 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 320.1%, which works out to an average of
5.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1992: the 1967 dollar
lost 76.2% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1992 at the same ratio, 4.20: $1,000 becomes
$4,201, and $10,000 becomes $42,006.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1992
$1.00
$4.20
$5.00
$21.00
$10.00
$42.01
$20.00
$84.01
$50.00
$210
$100
$420
$500
$2,100
$1,000
$4,201
$5,000
$21,003
$10,000
$42,006
$100,000
$420,060
$1,000,000
$4,200,599
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1992
Between 1967 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 574.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 158.6%, against 320.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.91%
$420
Medical care
7.93%
$674
Housing
6.17%
$446
Energy
6.04%
$433
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.95%
$424
Food
5.75%
$404
Transportation
5.48%
$380
Apparel
3.87%
$259
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1992
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$420
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $217 by
1979, on its way to $420 in 1992; 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 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $420; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1992: $100 is worth $420 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1992/