$100 in 1968 is worth $461 in 1997,
because prices increased 361.2% over that period, an average of
5.41% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$461
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
361.2%
Average inflation rate
5.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$461
Price difference ($100 base)
$361
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1968 → 1997
$461
$100 in 1997 → 1968
$21.68
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1997
Between 1968 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 361.2%, which works out to an average of
5.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1997: the 1968 dollar
lost 78.3% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1997 at the same ratio, 4.61: $1,000 becomes
$4,612, and $10,000 becomes $46,121.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1997
$1.00
$4.61
$5.00
$23.06
$10.00
$46.12
$20.00
$92.24
$50.00
$231
$100
$461
$500
$2,306
$1,000
$4,612
$5,000
$23,060
$10,000
$46,121
$100,000
$461,207
$1,000,000
$4,612,069
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1997
Between 1968 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 684.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 147.5%, against 361.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.41%
$461
Medical care
7.36%
$785
Housing
5.63%
$490
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.46%
$467
Energy
5.41%
$461
Food
5.29%
$446
Transportation
5.08%
$421
Apparel
3.17%
$247
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$461
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $277 by
1982, on its way to $461 in 1997; 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 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $461; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1997: $100 is worth $461 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1997/