$100 in 1968 is worth $326 in 1987,
because prices increased 226.4% over that period, an average of
6.42% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$326
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
226.4%
Average inflation rate
6.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$326
Price difference ($100 base)
$226
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1968 → 1987
$326
$100 in 1987 → 1968
$30.63
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1987
Between 1968 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 226.4%, which works out to an average of
6.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1987: the 1968 dollar
lost 69.4% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1987 at the same ratio, 3.26: $1,000 becomes
$3,264, and $10,000 becomes $32,644.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1987
$1.00
$3.26
$5.00
$16.32
$10.00
$32.64
$20.00
$65.29
$50.00
$163
$100
$326
$500
$1,632
$1,000
$3,264
$5,000
$16,322
$10,000
$32,644
$100,000
$326,437
$1,000,000
$3,264,368
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1987
Between 1968 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 335.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 106.0%, against 226.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.42%
$326
Medical care
8.05%
$435
Energy
7.07%
$366
Housing
6.93%
$357
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.41%
$326
Food
6.34%
$322
Transportation
6.09%
$307
Apparel
3.88%
$206
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1987
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$326
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $174 by
1977, on its way to $326 in 1987; 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 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $326; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1987: $100 is worth $326 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1987/