$100 in 1924 is worth $215 in 1969,
because prices increased 114.6% over that period, an average of
1.71% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$215
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
114.6%
Average inflation rate
1.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$215
Price difference ($100 base)
$115
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1924 → 1969
$215
$100 in 1969 → 1924
$46.59
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1969
Between 1924 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 114.6%, which works out to an average of
1.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1969: the 1924 dollar
lost 53.4% of its purchasing power over
these 45 years.
Consumer prices held flat in 1924, the CPI’s annual average unchanged from
1923 after swinging from a sharp postwar drop to a modest rise the year
before. That stability, extending the calm that had settled in after the
deflation of 1921 and 1922, became a defining feature of the rest of the
decade. Congress tightened immigration policy further with the Immigration
Act of 1924, signed May 26, which cut the national-origins quota from 3% of
each nationality’s 1910 census population to 2% of its 1890 population,
shifting admissions further toward northern and western Europe and
effectively excluding most immigration from Asia. Abroad, the U.S.-backed
Dawes Plan, adopted that August, reorganized Germany’s war reparations
payments and opened the way for American loans into the German economy,
helping stabilize European currencies after the hyperinflation that had
peaked in 1923. At home, Calvin Coolidge, who had served out
the remainder of Warren Harding’s term after his death the previous year,
won a full term of his own that November, campaigning on continued
prosperity and limited government. First-class postage remained at 2 cents,
a price unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1924 amount converts to 1969 at the same ratio, 2.15: $1,000 becomes
$2,146, and $10,000 becomes $21,462.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.15
$5.00
$10.73
$10.00
$21.46
$20.00
$42.92
$50.00
$107
$100
$215
$500
$1,073
$1,000
$2,146
$5,000
$10,731
$10,000
$21,462
$100,000
$214,620
$1,000,000
$2,146,199
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1969
Between 1924 and 1969, food rose the most, up 144.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 111.9%, against 114.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.71%
$215
Food
2.00%
$244
Apparel
1.68%
$212
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1924: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1924 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1924, at end
1924–1930
-0.39%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$215
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $114 by
1946, on its way to $215 in 1969; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, 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 1924 had the buying
power of $215; 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 1924 to 1969: $100 is worth $215 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1969/