$100 in 1933 is worth $282 in 1969,
because prices increased 182.3% over that period, an average of
2.92% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$282
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
182.3%
Average inflation rate
2.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$282
Price difference ($100 base)
$182
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1933 → 1969
$282
$100 in 1969 → 1933
$35.42
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1969
Between 1933 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 182.3%, which works out to an average of
2.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1969: the 1933 dollar
lost 64.6% of its purchasing power over
these 36 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1969 at the same ratio, 2.82: $1,000 becomes
$2,823, and $10,000 becomes $28,231.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.82
$5.00
$14.12
$10.00
$28.23
$20.00
$56.46
$50.00
$141
$100
$282
$500
$1,412
$1,000
$2,823
$5,000
$14,115
$10,000
$28,231
$100,000
$282,308
$1,000,000
$2,823,077
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1969
Between 1933 and 1969, food rose the most, up 256.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 202.1%, against 182.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.92%
$282
Food
3.60%
$357
Apparel
3.12%
$302
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$282
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $200 by
1951, on its way to $282 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 2.1% in 1938, 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 1933 had the buying
power of $282; 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 1933 to 1969: $100 is worth $282 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1969/