$1 in 1960 is worth $1.41 in 1972

Buying power of $1 in 1960

This chart shows a calculation of buying power equivalence for $1 in 1960 (price index tracking began in 1914).

For example, if you started with $1, you would need to end with $1.41 in order to "adjust" for inflation (sometimes refered to as "beating inflation").

When $1 is equivalent to $1.41 over time, that means that the "real value" of a single Canadian dollar decreases over time. In other words, a dollar will pay for fewer items at the store.

This effect explains how inflation erodes the value of a dollar over time. By calculating the value in 1960 dollars, the chart below shows how $1 is worth less over 12 years.

According to Statistics Canada, each of these CAD amounts below is equal in terms of what it could buy at the time:

This conversion table shows various other 1960 amounts in 1972 dollars, based on the 41.07% change in prices:

How to calculate inflation rate for $1, 1960 to 1972

Our calculations use the following inflation rate formula to calculate the change in value between 1960 and 1972:

Then plug in historical CPI values. The Canadian CPI was 15.54166667 in the year 1960 and 21.925 in 1972:

$1 in 1960 has the same "purchasing power" or "buying power" as $1.41 in 1972.

To get the total inflation rate for the 12 years between 1960 and 1972, we use the following formula:

Plugging in the values to this equation, we get:

Data source & citation

Raw data for these calculations comes from the government of Canada's annual Consumer Price Index (CPI), established in 1914 and computed by Statistics Canada (StatCan).

» Read more about inflation and investment.