$100 in 1968 is worth $174 in 1977,
because prices increased 74.1% over that period, an average of
6.36% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$174
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
74.1%
Average inflation rate
6.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$174
Price difference ($100 base)
$74.14
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1968 → 1977
$174
$100 in 1977 → 1968
$57.43
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1977
Between 1968 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 74.1%, which works out to an average of
6.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1977: the 1968 dollar
lost 42.6% of its purchasing power over
these 9 years.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
Every 1968 amount converts to 1977 at the same ratio, 1.74: $1,000 becomes
$1,741, and $10,000 becomes $17,414.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1977
$1.00
$1.74
$5.00
$8.71
$10.00
$17.41
$20.00
$34.83
$50.00
$87.07
$100
$174
$500
$871
$1,000
$1,741
$5,000
$8,707
$10,000
$17,414
$100,000
$174,138
$1,000,000
$1,741,379
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1977
Between 1968 and 1977, energy rose the most, up 104.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 46.4%, against 74.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.36%
$174
Energy
8.25%
$204
Medical care
7.43%
$191
Food
7.11%
$186
Housing
6.71%
$179
Transportation
6.21%
$172
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.94%
$168
Apparel
4.32%
$146
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.59% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1977 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1968, at end
1968–1970
5.59%
11.5%
$111
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$174
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $120 by
1972, on its way to $174 in 1977; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $174; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1977: $100 is worth $174 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1977/