$100 in 1968 is worth $876 in 2023,
because prices increased 775.6% over that period, an average of
4.02% a year.
$100 in 1968 has
the same buying power as
$876
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
775.6%
Average inflation rate
4.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$876
Price difference ($100 base)
$776
CPI in 1968
34.8
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1968 → 2023
$876
$100 in 2023 → 1968
$11.42
What happened to prices between 1968 and 2023
Between 1968 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 34.8 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 775.6%, which works out to an average of
4.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1968 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2023: the 1968 dollar
lost 88.6% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2023 at the same ratio, 8.76: $1,000 becomes
$8,756, and $10,000 becomes $87,558.
Amount in 1968
Value in 2023
$1.00
$8.76
$5.00
$43.78
$10.00
$87.56
$20.00
$175
$50.00
$438
$100
$876
$500
$4,378
$1,000
$8,756
$5,000
$43,779
$10,000
$87,558
$100,000
$875,580
$1,000,000
$8,755,805
Inflation by spending category, 1968–2023
Between 1968 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 1736.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 143.2%, against 775.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1968
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1968 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.02%
$876
Medical care
5.43%
$1,836
Energy
4.57%
$1,171
Housing
4.28%
$1,001
Food
4.11%
$915
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.97%
$850
Transportation
3.80%
$778
Apparel
1.63%
$243
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1968: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1968 to 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1968–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$744
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$876
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1968
$100 from 1968 had already become $451 by
1996, on its way to $876 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1968 had the buying
power of $876; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1968 to 2023: $100 is worth $876 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1968 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1968-to-2023/