$100 in 1968 is worth $669 in 2013,
because prices increased 569.4% over that period, an average of
4.32% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$669
in 2013
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
569.4%
Average inflation rate
4.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$669
Price difference ($100 base)
$569
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 2013
232.957
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 2013
1.46%
$100 in 1968 → 2013
$669
$100 in 2013 → 1968
$14.94
What happened to prices between 1968 and 2013
Between 1968 and 2013, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 232.957.
Cumulatively, prices increased 569.4%, which works out to an average of
4.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2013: the 1968 dollar
lost 85.1% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2013 at the same ratio, 6.69: $1,000 becomes
$6,694, and $10,000 becomes $66,942.
Amount in 1968
Value in 2013
$1.00
$6.69
$5.00
$33.47
$10.00
$66.94
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$335
$100
$669
$500
$3,347
$1,000
$6,694
$5,000
$33,471
$10,000
$66,942
$100,000
$669,417
$1,000,000
$6,694,167
Inflation by spending category, 1968–2013
Between 1968 and 2013, medical care rose the most, up 1321.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 137.3%, against 569.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 2013, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.32%
$669
Medical care
6.08%
$1,422
Energy
5.27%
$1,010
Housing
4.45%
$710
Food
4.32%
$671
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.23%
$644
Transportation
4.19%
$634
Apparel
1.94%
$237
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 2013
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–2013 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$627
2010–2013
2.23%
6.8%
$669
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $376 by
1990, on its way to $669 in 2013; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2013
In 2013, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $669; the year's average CPI of 232.957 is the level
behind every 2013 figure on this page.
2013 was a low-inflation year with a lot of noise around the Federal Reserve.
Consumer prices rose 1.5%, below the Fed’s 2% target, and gasoline eased to an
average of $3.51 a gallon. Housing was the exception: the median new home sold
for about $268,900, up sharply from $245,200 in 2012, as the market recovered
from its post-crisis bottom.
The Fed dominated the news. Chairman Ben Bernanke’s May comments about slowing
bond purchases pushed long-term interest rates up by roughly a percentage
point that summer, and mortgages became more expensive within weeks. In
December the Fed finally announced a first small cut to its purchases while
promising to keep short-term rates near zero for a long time.
Washington added its own disruption. A 16-day government shutdown in October
delayed data releases and left a hole in that month’s CPI collection. Median
household income was reported at $53,585, the federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp cost 46 cents. The decade’s pattern was taking
shape: slow price growth, ultra-low interest rates, and a labor market that
improved gradually.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 2013: $100 is worth $669 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2013/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 2013. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2013/