$100 in 1967 is worth $470 in 1996,
because prices increased 369.8% over that period, an average of
5.48% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$470
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
369.8%
Average inflation rate
5.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$470
Price difference ($100 base)
$370
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1967 → 1996
$470
$100 in 1996 → 1967
$21.29
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1996
Between 1967 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 369.8%, which works out to an average of
5.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1996: the 1967 dollar
lost 78.7% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1996 at the same ratio, 4.70: $1,000 becomes
$4,698, and $10,000 becomes $46,976.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1996
$1.00
$4.70
$5.00
$23.49
$10.00
$46.98
$20.00
$93.95
$50.00
$235
$100
$470
$500
$2,349
$1,000
$4,698
$5,000
$23,488
$10,000
$46,976
$100,000
$469,760
$1,000,000
$4,697,605
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1996
Between 1967 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 709.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 158.2%, against 369.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.48%
$470
Medical care
7.48%
$809
Housing
5.68%
$496
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.54%
$477
Energy
5.42%
$463
Food
5.32%
$450
Transportation
5.15%
$429
Apparel
3.33%
$258
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$470
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $272 by
1981, on its way to $470 in 1996; 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 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $470; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1996: $100 is worth $470 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1996/