$100 in 1968 is worth $509 in 2001,
because prices increased 408.9% over that period, an average of
5.05% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$509
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
408.9%
Average inflation rate
5.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$509
Price difference ($100 base)
$409
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1968 → 2001
$509
$100 in 2001 → 1968
$19.65
What happened to prices between 1968 and 2001
Between 1968 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 408.9%, which works out to an average of
5.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.20 buys in 2001: the 1968 dollar
lost 80.4% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 2001 at the same ratio, 5.09: $1,000 becomes
$5,089, and $10,000 becomes $50,891.
Amount in 1968
Value in 2001
$1.00
$5.09
$5.00
$25.45
$10.00
$50.89
$20.00
$102
$50.00
$254
$100
$509
$500
$2,545
$1,000
$5,089
$5,000
$25,445
$10,000
$50,891
$100,000
$508,908
$1,000,000
$5,089,080
Inflation by spending category, 1968–2001
Between 1968 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 812.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 137.1%, against 408.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.05%
$509
Medical care
6.93%
$912
Housing
5.31%
$551
Energy
5.21%
$534
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.08%
$513
Food
4.94%
$490
Transportation
4.66%
$450
Apparel
2.65%
$237
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 2001
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 1968–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$509
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $299 by
1984, on its way to $509 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $509; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 2001: $100 is worth $509 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2001/