$100 in 1968 is worth $722 in 2018,
because prices increased 621.6% over that period, an average of
4.03% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$722
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
621.6%
Average inflation rate
4.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$722
Price difference ($100 base)
$622
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1968 → 2018
$722
$100 in 2018 → 1968
$13.86
What happened to prices between 1968 and 2018
Between 1968 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 621.6%, which works out to an average of
4.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2018: the 1968 dollar
lost 86.1% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 2018 at the same ratio, 7.22: $1,000 becomes
$7,216, and $10,000 becomes $72,157.
Amount in 1968
Value in 2018
$1.00
$7.22
$5.00
$36.08
$10.00
$72.16
$20.00
$144
$50.00
$361
$100
$722
$500
$3,608
$1,000
$7,216
$5,000
$36,079
$10,000
$72,157
$100,000
$721,572
$1,000,000
$7,215,718
Inflation by spending category, 1968–2018
Between 1968 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 1521.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 134.0%, against 621.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.03%
$722
Medical care
5.73%
$1,621
Energy
4.51%
$909
Housing
4.27%
$808
Food
4.02%
$718
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.00%
$710
Transportation
3.70%
$614
Apparel
1.71%
$234
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$722
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $403 by
1992, on its way to $722 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $722; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 2018: $100 is worth $722 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2018/