$100 in 1951 is worth $141 in 1969,
because prices increased 41.2% over that period, an average of
1.93% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$141
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
41.2%
Average inflation rate
1.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$141
Price difference ($100 base)
$41.15
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1951 → 1969
$141
$100 in 1969 → 1951
$70.84
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1969
Between 1951 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 41.2%, which works out to an average of
1.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1969: the 1951 dollar
lost 29.2% of its purchasing power over
these 18 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1969 at the same ratio, 1.41: $1,000 becomes
$1,412, and $10,000 becomes $14,115.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1969
$1.00
$1.41
$5.00
$7.06
$10.00
$14.12
$20.00
$28.23
$50.00
$70.58
$100
$141
$500
$706
$1,000
$1,412
$5,000
$7,058
$10,000
$14,115
$100,000
$141,154
$1,000,000
$1,411,538
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1969
Between 1951 and 1969, medical care rose the most, up 100.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 29.4%, against 41.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.93%
$141
Medical care
3.94%
$201
Transportation
2.21%
$148
Food
1.54%
$132
Apparel
1.44%
$129
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 2.42% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1969 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$141
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $114 by
1960, on its way to $141 in 1969; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.5% in 1969, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $141; 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 1951 to 1969: $100 is worth $141 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1969/