$100 in 1914 is worth $367 in 1969,
because prices increased 267.0% over that period, an average of
2.39% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$367
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
267.0%
Average inflation rate
2.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$367
Price difference ($100 base)
$267
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1914 → 1969
$367
$100 in 1969 → 1914
$27.25
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1969
Between 1914 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 267.0%, which works out to an average of
2.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1969: the 1914 dollar
lost 72.8% of its purchasing power over
these 55 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 1969 at the same ratio, 3.67: $1,000 becomes
$3,670, and $10,000 becomes $36,700.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1969
$1.00
$3.67
$5.00
$18.35
$10.00
$36.70
$20.00
$73.40
$50.00
$184
$100
$367
$500
$1,835
$1,000
$3,670
$5,000
$18,350
$10,000
$36,700
$100,000
$367,000
$1,000,000
$3,670,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1969
Between 1914 and 1969, apparel rose the most, up 278.7%, while food rose the least, up 263.7%, against 267.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.39%
$367
Apparel
2.45%
$379
Food
2.38%
$364
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$167
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$140
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$241
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$296
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$367
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $163 by
1942, on its way to $367 in 1969; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $367; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1969: $100 is worth $367 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1969/