$100 in 1969 is worth $121 in 1973,
because prices increased 21.0% over that period, an average of
4.88% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
21.0%
Average inflation rate
4.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.98
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1969 → 1973
$121
$100 in 1973 → 1969
$82.66
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1973
Between 1969 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 21.0%, which works out to an average of
4.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1973: the 1969 dollar
lost 17.3% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
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.
Every 1969 amount converts to 1973 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,210, and $10,000 becomes $12,098.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.05
$10.00
$12.10
$20.00
$24.20
$50.00
$60.49
$100
$121
$500
$605
$1,000
$1,210
$5,000
$6,049
$10,000
$12,098
$100,000
$120,981
$1,000,000
$1,209,809
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1973
Between 1969 and 1973, food rose the most, up 29.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 13.7%, against 21.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.88%
$121
Food
6.76%
$130
Medical care
5.02%
$122
Housing
4.92%
$121
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.39%
$119
Energy
4.35%
$119
Transportation
3.65%
$115
Apparel
3.27%
$114
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 5.72% a year, and slowest in the 1970s (4.60% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1969, at end
1969–1970
5.72%
5.7%
$106
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$121
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $110 by
1971, on its way to $121 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $121; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1973: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1973/