$100 in 1916 is worth $337 in 1969,
because prices increased 236.7% over that period, an average of
2.32% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$337
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
236.7%
Average inflation rate
2.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$337
Price difference ($100 base)
$237
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1916 → 1969
$337
$100 in 1969 → 1916
$29.70
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1969
Between 1916 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 236.7%, which works out to an average of
2.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1969: the 1916 dollar
lost 70.3% of its purchasing power over
these 53 years.
1916 was when World War I first showed up clearly in American price tags.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% for the year, easily the sharpest increase since
the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI history begins in 1913, as factories ran
flat out to fill steel, munitions, and food orders from Britain and France.
Railroad workers felt the squeeze from rising living costs enough to threaten
a nationwide strike; Congress headed it off in September with the Adamson
Act, which set an eight-hour standard workday for interstate rail employees,
the first federal law of its kind covering private-sector hours. Washington
was also preparing more directly for war: the National Defense Act, signed
in June, expanded the Army and National Guard and funded new
government-owned munitions plants, adding another source of demand to an
economy already running hot. Woodrow Wilson won re-election in November
largely on having kept the country out of the fighting so far, a promise
that would not survive the following spring. A first-class stamp still cost
2 cents, one of the few prices that had not yet moved.
Every 1916 amount converts to 1969 at the same ratio, 3.37: $1,000 becomes
$3,367, and $10,000 becomes $33,670.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1969
$1.00
$3.37
$5.00
$16.83
$10.00
$33.67
$20.00
$67.34
$50.00
$168
$100
$337
$500
$1,683
$1,000
$3,367
$5,000
$16,835
$10,000
$33,670
$100,000
$336,697
$1,000,000
$3,366,972
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1969
Between 1916 and 1969, apparel rose the most, up 238.1%, while food rose the least, up 228.3%, against 236.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.32%
$337
Apparel
2.33%
$338
Food
2.27%
$328
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1916: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1916 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1916, at end
1916–1920
16.39%
83.5%
$183
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$153
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$128
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$221
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$272
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$337
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $150 by
1942, on its way to $337 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 1916 had the buying
power of $337; 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 1916 to 1969: $100 is worth $337 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1969/