$100 in 1968 is worth $315 in 1986,
because prices increased 214.9% over that period, an average of
6.58% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$315
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
214.9%
Average inflation rate
6.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$315
Price difference ($100 base)
$215
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1968 → 1986
$315
$100 in 1986 → 1968
$31.75
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1986
Between 1968 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 214.9%, which works out to an average of
6.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1986: the 1968 dollar
lost 68.2% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1986 at the same ratio, 3.15: $1,000 becomes
$3,149, and $10,000 becomes $31,494.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1986
$1.00
$3.15
$5.00
$15.75
$10.00
$31.49
$20.00
$62.99
$50.00
$157
$100
$315
$500
$1,575
$1,000
$3,149
$5,000
$15,747
$10,000
$31,494
$100,000
$314,943
$1,000,000
$3,149,425
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1986
Between 1968 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 308.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 97.2%, against 214.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.58%
$315
Medical care
8.13%
$408
Energy
7.45%
$364
Housing
7.15%
$347
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.54%
$313
Food
6.46%
$309
Transportation
6.26%
$298
Apparel
3.84%
$197
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$315
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $174 by
1977, on its way to $315 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $315; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1986: $100 is worth $315 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1986/