$100 in 1968 is worth $690 in 2016,
because prices increased 589.7% over that period, an average of
4.11% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$690
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
589.7%
Average inflation rate
4.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$690
Price difference ($100 base)
$590
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1968 → 2016
$690
$100 in 2016 → 1968
$14.50
What happened to prices between 1968 and 2016
Between 1968 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 589.7%, which works out to an average of
4.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2016: the 1968 dollar
lost 85.5% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2016 at the same ratio, 6.90: $1,000 becomes
$6,897, and $10,000 becomes $68,968.
Amount in 1968
Value in 2016
$1.00
$6.90
$5.00
$34.48
$10.00
$68.97
$20.00
$138
$50.00
$345
$100
$690
$500
$3,448
$1,000
$6,897
$5,000
$34,484
$10,000
$68,968
$100,000
$689,675
$1,000,000
$6,896,753
Inflation by spending category, 1968–2016
Between 1968 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 1450.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 134.7%, against 589.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.11%
$690
Medical care
5.88%
$1,551
Energy
4.38%
$783
Housing
4.32%
$762
Food
4.14%
$702
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.08%
$682
Transportation
3.69%
$568
Apparel
1.79%
$235
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$690
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $403 by
1992, on its way to $690 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $690; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 2016: $100 is worth $690 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2016/