$100 in 1968 is worth $391 in 1991,
because prices increased 291.4% over that period, an average of
6.11% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$391
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
291.4%
Average inflation rate
6.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$391
Price difference ($100 base)
$291
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1968 → 1991
$391
$100 in 1991 → 1968
$25.55
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1991
Between 1968 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 291.4%, which works out to an average of
6.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1991: the 1968 dollar
lost 74.4% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1991 at the same ratio, 3.91: $1,000 becomes
$3,914, and $10,000 becomes $39,138.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1991
$1.00
$3.91
$5.00
$19.57
$10.00
$39.14
$20.00
$78.28
$50.00
$196
$100
$391
$500
$1,957
$1,000
$3,914
$5,000
$19,569
$10,000
$39,138
$100,000
$391,379
$1,000,000
$3,913,793
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1991
Between 1968 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 492.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 139.7%, against 291.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.11%
$391
Medical care
8.04%
$592
Energy
6.48%
$424
Housing
6.41%
$418
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.11%
$391
Food
6.05%
$386
Transportation
5.74%
$361
Apparel
3.87%
$240
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$391
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $209 by
1979, on its way to $391 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $391; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1991: $100 is worth $391 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1991/