$100 in 1968 is worth $261 in 1981,
because prices increased 161.2% over that period, an average of
7.67% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$261
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
161.2%
Average inflation rate
7.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$261
Price difference ($100 base)
$161
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1968 → 1981
$261
$100 in 1981 → 1968
$38.28
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1981
Between 1968 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 161.2%, which works out to an average of
7.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1981: the 1968 dollar
lost 61.7% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1981 at the same ratio, 2.61: $1,000 becomes
$2,612, and $10,000 becomes $26,121.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1981
$1.00
$2.61
$5.00
$13.06
$10.00
$26.12
$20.00
$52.24
$50.00
$131
$100
$261
$500
$1,306
$1,000
$2,612
$5,000
$13,060
$10,000
$26,121
$100,000
$261,207
$1,000,000
$2,612,069
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1981
Between 1968 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 303.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 77.5%, against 161.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.67%
$261
Energy
11.33%
$404
Housing
8.32%
$283
Medical care
8.16%
$277
Transportation
7.99%
$272
Food
7.79%
$265
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.16%
$246
Apparel
4.51%
$177
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.59% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$261
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $142 by
1974, on its way to $261 in 1981; 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 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $261; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1981: $100 is worth $261 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1981/