$100 in 1919 is worth $212 in 1969,
because prices increased 112.1% over that period, an average of
1.52% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$212
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
112.1%
Average inflation rate
1.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$212
Price difference ($100 base)
$112
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1919 → 1969
$212
$100 in 1969 → 1919
$47.14
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1969
Between 1919 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 112.1%, which works out to an average of
1.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1969: the 1919 dollar
lost 52.9% of its purchasing power over
these 50 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1969 at the same ratio, 2.12: $1,000 becomes
$2,121, and $10,000 becomes $21,214.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.12
$5.00
$10.61
$10.00
$21.21
$20.00
$42.43
$50.00
$106
$100
$212
$500
$1,061
$1,000
$2,121
$5,000
$10,607
$10,000
$21,214
$100,000
$212,139
$1,000,000
$2,121,387
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1969
Between 1919 and 1969, food rose the most, up 99.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 56.9%, against 112.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.52%
$212
Food
1.39%
$199
Apparel
0.91%
$157
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$96.53
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.92
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$212
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $100 by
1943, on its way to $212 in 1969; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, 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 1919 had the buying
power of $212; 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 1919 to 1969: $100 is worth $212 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1969/