$100 in 1968 is worth $237 in 1980,
because prices increased 136.8% over that period, an average of
7.45% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$237
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
136.8%
Average inflation rate
7.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$237
Price difference ($100 base)
$137
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1968 → 1980
$237
$100 in 1980 → 1968
$42.23
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1980
Between 1968 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 136.8%, which works out to an average of
7.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1980: the 1968 dollar
lost 57.8% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1980 at the same ratio, 2.37: $1,000 becomes
$2,368, and $10,000 becomes $23,678.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1980
$1.00
$2.37
$5.00
$11.84
$10.00
$23.68
$20.00
$47.36
$50.00
$118
$100
$237
$500
$1,184
$1,000
$2,368
$5,000
$11,839
$10,000
$23,678
$100,000
$236,782
$1,000,000
$2,367,816
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1980
Between 1968 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 255.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 69.3%, against 136.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.45%
$237
Energy
11.15%
$355
Housing
8.06%
$253
Medical care
7.95%
$251
Food
7.79%
$246
Transportation
7.65%
$242
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.90%
$223
Apparel
4.48%
$169
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.59% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1980 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1968, at end
1968–1970
5.59%
11.5%
$111
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$237
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $142 by
1974, on its way to $237 in 1980; 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 3.2% in 1972.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $237; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1980: $100 is worth $237 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1980/