$100 in 1967 is worth $645 in 2008,
because prices increased 544.6% over that period, an average of
4.65% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$645
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
544.6%
Average inflation rate
4.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$645
Price difference ($100 base)
$545
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1967 → 2008
$645
$100 in 2008 → 1967
$15.51
What happened to prices between 1967 and 2008
Between 1967 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 544.6%, which works out to an average of
4.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2008: the 1967 dollar
lost 84.5% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 2008 at the same ratio, 6.45: $1,000 becomes
$6,446, and $10,000 becomes $64,462.
Amount in 1967
Value in 2008
$1.00
$6.45
$5.00
$32.23
$10.00
$64.46
$20.00
$129
$50.00
$322
$100
$645
$500
$3,223
$1,000
$6,446
$5,000
$32,231
$10,000
$64,462
$100,000
$644,620
$1,000,000
$6,446,198
Inflation by spending category, 1967–2008
Between 1967 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 1191.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 133.2%, against 544.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.65%
$645
Medical care
6.44%
$1,291
Energy
5.76%
$994
Housing
4.87%
$702
Food
4.58%
$628
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.56%
$621
Transportation
4.41%
$587
Apparel
2.09%
$233
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 2008
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 1967–2008 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$516
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$645
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $340 by
1987, on its way to $645 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $645; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1967 to 2008: $100 is worth $645 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-2008/