$100 in 1931 is worth $241 in 1969,
because prices increased 141.4% over that period, an average of
2.35% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$241
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
141.4%
Average inflation rate
2.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$241
Price difference ($100 base)
$141
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1931 → 1969
$241
$100 in 1969 → 1931
$41.42
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1969
Between 1931 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 141.4%, which works out to an average of
2.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1969: the 1931 dollar
lost 58.6% of its purchasing power over
these 38 years.
Consumer prices fell 9.0% in 1931, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3% decline
in 1930, as falling wages, collapsing farm prices, and a fresh
wave of bank failures fed a downward spiral that the still-contracting
economy could not shake. More than 2,000 banks failed during the year, far
more than in 1930, as depositors who had watched earlier banks go under
pulled their cash out of ones they feared were next. The crisis went
international that September, when Britain suspended the gold standard amid
a run on sterling. The Federal Reserve’s response made the domestic downturn
worse before it made anything better: to defend the dollar’s own gold
backing, the Fed raised its discount rate sharply that October, in two steps
from 1.5% to 3.5%, tightening credit at the exact moment the economy needed
the opposite. Not every headline that year was grim. The Empire State
Building opened its doors on May 1, briefly the tallest building in the
world, though so much of Manhattan’s office space sat vacant amid the
Depression that tenants stayed scarce and New Yorkers took to calling it the
“Empty State Building.” Consumer prices had now fallen for two straight
years and stood 53.5% above their 1913 level, down from the
68.7% margin of just twelve months before. First-class postage remained at 2
cents.
Every 1931 amount converts to 1969 at the same ratio, 2.41: $1,000 becomes
$2,414, and $10,000 becomes $24,145.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.41
$5.00
$12.07
$10.00
$24.14
$20.00
$48.29
$50.00
$121
$100
$241
$500
$1,207
$1,000
$2,414
$5,000
$12,072
$10,000
$24,145
$100,000
$241,447
$1,000,000
$2,414,474
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1969
Between 1931 and 1969, food rose the most, up 187.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 158.2%, against 141.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.35%
$241
Food
2.82%
$288
Apparel
2.53%
$258
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1931: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1931 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1931, at end
1931–1940
-0.91%
-7.9%
$92.11
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$159
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$195
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$241
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $157 by
1949, on its way to $241 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 1931 had the buying
power of $241; 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 1931 to 1969: $100 is worth $241 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1969/