$100 in 1968 is worth $438 in 1995,
because prices increased 337.9% over that period, an average of
5.62% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$438
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
337.9%
Average inflation rate
5.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$438
Price difference ($100 base)
$338
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1968 → 1995
$438
$100 in 1995 → 1968
$22.83
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1995
Between 1968 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 337.9%, which works out to an average of
5.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1995: the 1968 dollar
lost 77.2% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1995 at the same ratio, 4.38: $1,000 becomes
$4,379, and $10,000 becomes $43,793.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1995
$1.00
$4.38
$5.00
$21.90
$10.00
$43.79
$20.00
$87.59
$50.00
$219
$100
$438
$500
$2,190
$1,000
$4,379
$5,000
$21,897
$10,000
$43,793
$100,000
$437,931
$1,000,000
$4,379,310
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1995
Between 1968 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 637.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 145.8%, against 337.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.62%
$438
Medical care
7.68%
$737
Housing
5.85%
$464
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.68%
$444
Energy
5.59%
$435
Food
5.46%
$420
Transportation
5.32%
$406
Apparel
3.39%
$246
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$438
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $261 by
1981, on its way to $438 in 1995; 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 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $438; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1995: $100 is worth $438 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1995/