$100 in 1968 is worth $495 in 2000,
because prices increased 394.8% over that period, an average of
5.12% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$495
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
394.8%
Average inflation rate
5.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$495
Price difference ($100 base)
$395
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1968 → 2000
$495
$100 in 2000 → 1968
$20.21
What happened to prices between 1968 and 2000
Between 1968 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 394.8%, which works out to an average of
5.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.20 buys in 2000: the 1968 dollar
lost 79.8% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 2000 at the same ratio, 4.95: $1,000 becomes
$4,948, and $10,000 becomes $49,483.
Amount in 1968
Value in 2000
$1.00
$4.95
$5.00
$24.74
$10.00
$49.48
$20.00
$98.97
$50.00
$247
$100
$495
$500
$2,474
$1,000
$4,948
$5,000
$24,741
$10,000
$49,483
$100,000
$494,828
$1,000,000
$4,948,276
Inflation by spending category, 1968–2000
Between 1968 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 772.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 141.3%, against 394.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.12%
$495
Medical care
7.00%
$872
Housing
5.35%
$530
Energy
5.25%
$515
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.15%
$499
Food
4.99%
$475
Transportation
4.79%
$447
Apparel
2.79%
$241
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 2000
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 1968–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$495
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $299 by
1984, on its way to $495 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $495; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 2000: $100 is worth $495 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2000/