$100 in 1968 is worth $403 in 1992,
because prices increased 303.2% over that period, an average of
5.98% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$403
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
303.2%
Average inflation rate
5.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$403
Price difference ($100 base)
$303
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1968 → 1992
$403
$100 in 1992 → 1968
$24.80
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1992
Between 1968 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 303.2%, which works out to an average of
5.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1992: the 1968 dollar
lost 75.2% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1992 at the same ratio, 4.03: $1,000 becomes
$4,032, and $10,000 becomes $40,316.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1992
$1.00
$4.03
$5.00
$20.16
$10.00
$40.32
$20.00
$80.63
$50.00
$202
$100
$403
$500
$2,016
$1,000
$4,032
$5,000
$20,158
$10,000
$40,316
$100,000
$403,161
$1,000,000
$4,031,609
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1992
Between 1968 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 535.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 145.6%, against 303.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.98%
$403
Medical care
8.01%
$636
Housing
6.26%
$430
Energy
6.22%
$426
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.01%
$406
Food
5.84%
$391
Transportation
5.59%
$369
Apparel
3.82%
$246
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1992
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$403
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $237 by
1980, on its way to $403 in 1992; 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 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $403; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1992: $100 is worth $403 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1992/