$100 in 1935 is worth $268 in 1969,
because prices increased 167.9% over that period, an average of
2.94% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$268
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
167.9%
Average inflation rate
2.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$268
Price difference ($100 base)
$168
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1935 → 1969
$268
$100 in 1969 → 1935
$37.33
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1969
Between 1935 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 167.9%, which works out to an average of
2.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1969: the 1935 dollar
lost 62.7% of its purchasing power over
these 34 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.2% in 1935, a second straight annual increase after
1934’s turnaround, though the CPI still sat well below its
1929 peak and the recovery remained uneven and incomplete.
The year’s biggest legislative achievements aimed at making that unevenness
less punishing. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14,
creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by a new
payroll tax, the first federal safety net of its kind in U.S. history. That
spring, the Works Progress Administration had already begun putting millions
of unemployed Americans to work on public construction, arts, and
infrastructure projects, becoming the largest jobs program of the New Deal.
Congress added labor protections to the mix that July with the National
Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing most private-sector workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively. The human cost of the Dust Bowl was still
mounting on the Plains: the storm known as Black Sunday hit on April 14,
one of the worst of the decade, and continued drought kept driving farm
families off land that could no longer support them. Consumer prices ended
the year 38.4% above their 1913 level. First-class postage
held at 3 cents.
Every 1935 amount converts to 1969 at the same ratio, 2.68: $1,000 becomes
$2,679, and $10,000 becomes $26,788.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.68
$5.00
$13.39
$10.00
$26.79
$20.00
$53.58
$50.00
$134
$100
$268
$500
$1,339
$1,000
$2,679
$5,000
$13,394
$10,000
$26,788
$100,000
$267,883
$1,000,000
$2,678,832
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1969
Between 1935 and 1969, medical care rose the most, up 212.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 151.4%, against 167.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.94%
$268
Medical care
3.41%
$313
Food
3.28%
$299
Apparel
3.00%
$273
Transportation
2.75%
$251
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1935: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1935 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$176
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$216
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$268
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $190 by
1951, on its way to $268 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 1935 had the buying
power of $268; 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 1935 to 1969: $100 is worth $268 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1969/