$100 in 1968 is worth $309 in 1985,
because prices increased 209.2% over that period, an average of
6.87% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$309
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
209.2%
Average inflation rate
6.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$309
Price difference ($100 base)
$209
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1968 → 1985
$309
$100 in 1985 → 1968
$32.34
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1985
Between 1968 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 209.2%, which works out to an average of
6.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1985: the 1968 dollar
lost 67.7% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1985 at the same ratio, 3.09: $1,000 becomes
$3,092, and $10,000 becomes $30,920.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.09
$5.00
$15.46
$10.00
$30.92
$20.00
$61.84
$50.00
$155
$100
$309
$500
$1,546
$1,000
$3,092
$5,000
$15,460
$10,000
$30,920
$100,000
$309,195
$1,000,000
$3,091,954
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1985
Between 1968 and 1985, energy rose the most, up 319.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 95.5%, against 209.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.87%
$309
Energy
8.81%
$420
Medical care
8.16%
$380
Housing
7.40%
$337
Transportation
6.89%
$310
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.69%
$301
Food
6.66%
$299
Apparel
4.02%
$196
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (5.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1985 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
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$309
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $164 by
1976, on its way to $309 in 1985; 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 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $309; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1985: $100 is worth $309 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1985/