$100 in 1968 is worth $340 in 1988,
because prices increased 239.9% over that period, an average of
6.31% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$340
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
239.9%
Average inflation rate
6.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$340
Price difference ($100 base)
$240
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1968 → 1988
$340
$100 in 1988 → 1968
$29.42
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1988
Between 1968 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 239.9%, which works out to an average of
6.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1988: the 1968 dollar
lost 70.6% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1988 at the same ratio, 3.40: $1,000 becomes
$3,399, and $10,000 becomes $33,994.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1988
$1.00
$3.40
$5.00
$17.00
$10.00
$33.99
$20.00
$67.99
$50.00
$170
$100
$340
$500
$1,700
$1,000
$3,399
$5,000
$16,997
$10,000
$33,994
$100,000
$339,943
$1,000,000
$3,399,425
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1988
Between 1968 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 363.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 114.9%, against 239.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.31%
$340
Medical care
7.97%
$464
Housing
6.76%
$370
Energy
6.75%
$369
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.31%
$340
Food
6.23%
$335
Transportation
5.94%
$317
Apparel
3.90%
$215
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1988
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.62% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$340
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $187 by
1978, on its way to $340 in 1988; 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 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $340; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1988: $100 is worth $340 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1988/