$100 in 1968 is worth $619 in 2008,
because prices increased 518.7% over that period, an average of
4.66% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$619
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
518.7%
Average inflation rate
4.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$619
Price difference ($100 base)
$519
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1968 → 2008
$619
$100 in 2008 → 1968
$16.16
What happened to prices between 1968 and 2008
Between 1968 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 518.7%, which works out to an average of
4.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2008: the 1968 dollar
lost 83.8% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2008 at the same ratio, 6.19: $1,000 becomes
$6,187, and $10,000 becomes $61,869.
Amount in 1968
Value in 2008
$1.00
$6.19
$5.00
$30.93
$10.00
$61.87
$20.00
$124
$50.00
$309
$100
$619
$500
$3,093
$1,000
$6,187
$5,000
$30,934
$10,000
$61,869
$100,000
$618,687
$1,000,000
$6,186,868
Inflation by spending category, 1968–2008
Between 1968 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 1117.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 121.4%, against 518.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.66%
$619
Medical care
6.45%
$1,218
Energy
5.87%
$978
Housing
4.89%
$676
Food
4.61%
$607
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.55%
$594
Transportation
4.45%
$570
Apparel
2.01%
$221
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 2008
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 1968–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$619
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $340 by
1988, on its way to $619 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $619; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 2008: $100 is worth $619 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2008/