$100 in 1968 is worth $479 in 1999,
because prices increased 378.7% over that period, an average of
5.18% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$479
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
378.7%
Average inflation rate
5.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$479
Price difference ($100 base)
$379
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1968 → 1999
$479
$100 in 1999 → 1968
$20.89
What happened to prices between 1968 and 1999
Between 1968 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 378.7%, which works out to an average of
5.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1999: the 1968 dollar
lost 79.1% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1999 at the same ratio, 4.79: $1,000 becomes
$4,787, and $10,000 becomes $47,874.
Amount in 1968
Value in 1999
$1.00
$4.79
$5.00
$23.94
$10.00
$47.87
$20.00
$95.75
$50.00
$239
$100
$479
$500
$2,394
$1,000
$4,787
$5,000
$23,937
$10,000
$47,874
$100,000
$478,736
$1,000,000
$4,787,356
Inflation by spending category, 1968–1999
Between 1968 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 738.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 144.5%, against 378.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.18%
$479
Medical care
7.10%
$838
Housing
5.41%
$512
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.24%
$488
Food
5.08%
$465
Energy
4.90%
$440
Transportation
4.75%
$421
Apparel
2.93%
$245
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$479
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $299 by
1984, on its way to $479 in 1999; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $479; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 1999: $100 is worth $479 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-1999/