$100 in 1968 is worth $376 in 1990,
because prices increased 275.6% over that period, an average of
6.20% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$376
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
275.6%
Average inflation rate
6.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$376
Price difference ($100 base)
$276
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1968 → 1990
$376
$100 in 1990 → 1968
$26.63
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1990
Between 1968 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 275.6%, which works out to an average of
6.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1990: the 1968 dollar
lost 73.4% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1990 at the same ratio, 3.76: $1,000 becomes
$3,756, and $10,000 becomes $37,557.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1990
$1.00
$3.76
$5.00
$18.78
$10.00
$37.56
$20.00
$75.11
$50.00
$188
$100
$376
$500
$1,878
$1,000
$3,756
$5,000
$18,779
$10,000
$37,557
$100,000
$375,575
$1,000,000
$3,755,747
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1990
Between 1968 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 444.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 131.1%, against 275.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.20%
$376
Medical care
8.01%
$544
Energy
6.76%
$422
Housing
6.52%
$402
Food
6.19%
$375
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.17%
$373
Transportation
5.88%
$351
Apparel
3.88%
$231
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1990
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$376
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $209 by
1979, on its way to $376 in 1990; 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 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $376; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1990: $100 is worth $376 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1990/