$100 in 1968 is worth $426 in 1994,
because prices increased 325.9% over that period, an average of
5.73% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$426
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
325.9%
Average inflation rate
5.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$426
Price difference ($100 base)
$326
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1968 → 1994
$426
$100 in 1994 → 1968
$23.48
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1994
Between 1968 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 325.9%, which works out to an average of
5.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1994: the 1968 dollar
lost 76.5% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1994 at the same ratio, 4.26: $1,000 becomes
$4,259, and $10,000 becomes $42,586.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1994
$1.00
$4.26
$5.00
$21.29
$10.00
$42.59
$20.00
$85.17
$50.00
$213
$100
$426
$500
$2,129
$1,000
$4,259
$5,000
$21,293
$10,000
$42,586
$100,000
$425,862
$1,000,000
$4,258,621
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1994
Between 1968 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 605.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 148.4%, against 325.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.73%
$426
Medical care
7.80%
$706
Housing
5.98%
$453
Energy
5.79%
$432
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.78%
$431
Food
5.56%
$409
Transportation
5.39%
$392
Apparel
3.56%
$248
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$426
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $261 by
1981, on its way to $426 in 1994; 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 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $426; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1994: $100 is worth $426 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1994/