$100 in 1967 is worth $488 in 1998,
because prices increased 388.0% over that period, an average of
5.25% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$488
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
388.0%
Average inflation rate
5.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$488
Price difference ($100 base)
$388
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1967 → 1998
$488
$100 in 1998 → 1967
$20.49
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1998
Between 1967 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 388.0%, which works out to an average of
5.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1998: the 1967 dollar
lost 79.5% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1998 at the same ratio, 4.88: $1,000 becomes
$4,880, and $10,000 becomes $48,802.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1998
$1.00
$4.88
$5.00
$24.40
$10.00
$48.80
$20.00
$97.60
$50.00
$244
$100
$488
$500
$2,440
$1,000
$4,880
$5,000
$24,401
$10,000
$48,802
$100,000
$488,024
$1,000,000
$4,880,240
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1998
Between 1967 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 758.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 160.8%, against 388.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.25%
$488
Medical care
7.18%
$859
Housing
5.47%
$521
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.33%
$500
Food
5.13%
$471
Energy
4.84%
$432
Transportation
4.78%
$425
Apparel
3.14%
$261
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$488
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $298 by
1983, on its way to $488 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $488; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 1998: $100 is worth $488 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1998/