$100 in 1968 is worth $286 in 1983,
because prices increased 186.2% over that period, an average of
7.26% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$286
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
186.2%
Average inflation rate
7.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$286
Price difference ($100 base)
$186
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1968 → 1983
$286
$100 in 1983 → 1968
$34.94
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1983
Between 1968 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 186.2%, which works out to an average of
7.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1983: the 1968 dollar
lost 65.1% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1983 at the same ratio, 2.86: $1,000 becomes
$2,862, and $10,000 becomes $28,621.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1983
$1.00
$2.86
$5.00
$14.31
$10.00
$28.62
$20.00
$57.24
$50.00
$143
$100
$286
$500
$1,431
$1,000
$2,862
$5,000
$14,310
$10,000
$28,621
$100,000
$286,207
$1,000,000
$2,862,069
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1983
Between 1968 and 1983, energy rose the most, up 312.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 86.6%, against 186.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.26%
$286
Energy
9.91%
$413
Medical care
8.42%
$336
Housing
7.86%
$311
Transportation
7.34%
$290
Food
7.15%
$282
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.96%
$274
Apparel
4.25%
$187
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1983
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 1968–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$286
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $155 by
1975, on its way to $286 in 1983; 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 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $286; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1983: $100 is worth $286 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1983/