$100 in 1968 is worth $468 in 1998,
because prices increased 368.4% over that period, an average of
5.28% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$468
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
368.4%
Average inflation rate
5.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$468
Price difference ($100 base)
$368
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1968 → 1998
$468
$100 in 1998 → 1968
$21.35
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1998
Between 1968 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 368.4%, which works out to an average of
5.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1998: the 1968 dollar
lost 78.7% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1998 at the same ratio, 4.68: $1,000 becomes
$4,684, and $10,000 becomes $46,839.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1998
$1.00
$4.68
$5.00
$23.42
$10.00
$46.84
$20.00
$93.68
$50.00
$234
$100
$468
$500
$2,342
$1,000
$4,684
$5,000
$23,420
$10,000
$46,839
$100,000
$468,391
$1,000,000
$4,683,908
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1998
Between 1968 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 709.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 147.7%, against 368.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.28%
$468
Medical care
7.22%
$810
Housing
5.52%
$501
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.35%
$478
Food
5.18%
$455
Energy
4.94%
$425
Transportation
4.84%
$413
Apparel
3.07%
$248
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$468
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $286 by
1983, on its way to $468 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $468; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1998: $100 is worth $468 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1998/