$100 in 1968 is worth $451 in 1996,
because prices increased 350.9% over that period, an average of
5.53% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$451
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
350.9%
Average inflation rate
5.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$451
Price difference ($100 base)
$351
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1968 → 1996
$451
$100 in 1996 → 1968
$22.18
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1996
Between 1968 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 350.9%, which works out to an average of
5.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1996: the 1968 dollar
lost 77.8% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1996 at the same ratio, 4.51: $1,000 becomes
$4,509, and $10,000 becomes $45,086.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1996
$1.00
$4.51
$5.00
$22.54
$10.00
$45.09
$20.00
$90.17
$50.00
$225
$100
$451
$500
$2,254
$1,000
$4,509
$5,000
$22,543
$10,000
$45,086
$100,000
$450,862
$1,000,000
$4,508,621
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1996
Between 1968 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 663.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 145.3%, against 350.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.53%
$451
Medical care
7.53%
$763
Housing
5.74%
$478
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.57%
$456
Energy
5.56%
$455
Food
5.38%
$434
Transportation
5.23%
$417
Apparel
3.26%
$245
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$451
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $277 by
1982, on its way to $451 in 1996; 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 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $451; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1996: $100 is worth $451 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1996/