$100 in 1969 is worth $134 in 1974,
because prices increased 34.3% over that period, an average of
6.08% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
34.3%
Average inflation rate
6.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$34.33
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1969 → 1974
$134
$100 in 1974 → 1969
$74.44
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1974
Between 1969 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 34.3%, which works out to an average of
6.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1974: the 1969 dollar
lost 25.6% of its purchasing power over
these 5 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,343, and $10,000 becomes $13,433.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.34
$5.00
$6.72
$10.00
$13.43
$20.00
$26.87
$50.00
$67.17
$100
$134
$500
$672
$1,000
$1,343
$5,000
$6,717
$10,000
$13,433
$100,000
$134,332
$1,000,000
$1,343,324
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1974
Between 1969 and 1974, energy rose the most, up 53.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 22.2%, against 34.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.08%
$134
Energy
8.97%
$154
Food
8.23%
$149
Housing
6.14%
$135
Medical care
5.86%
$133
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.17%
$129
Transportation
5.11%
$128
Apparel
4.09%
$122
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1969, at end
1969–1970
5.72%
5.7%
$106
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$134
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $110 by
1971, on its way to $134 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $134; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1974: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1974/