$100 in 1967 is worth $481 in 1997,
because prices increased 380.5% over that period, an average of
5.37% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$481
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
380.5%
Average inflation rate
5.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$481
Price difference ($100 base)
$381
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1967 → 1997
$481
$100 in 1997 → 1967
$20.81
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1997
Between 1967 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 380.5%, which works out to an average of
5.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1997: the 1967 dollar
lost 79.2% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1997 at the same ratio, 4.81: $1,000 becomes
$4,805, and $10,000 becomes $48,054.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1997
$1.00
$4.81
$5.00
$24.03
$10.00
$48.05
$20.00
$96.11
$50.00
$240
$100
$481
$500
$2,403
$1,000
$4,805
$5,000
$24,027
$10,000
$48,054
$100,000
$480,539
$1,000,000
$4,805,389
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1997
Between 1967 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 731.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 160.6%, against 380.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.37%
$481
Medical care
7.32%
$832
Housing
5.57%
$509
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.43%
$488
Energy
5.28%
$468
Food
5.23%
$461
Transportation
5.01%
$433
Apparel
3.24%
$261
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$481
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $289 by
1982, on its way to $481 in 1997; 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 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $481; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1997: $100 is worth $481 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1997/