$100 in 1969 is worth $147 in 1975,
because prices increased 46.6% over that period, an average of
6.58% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$147
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
46.6%
Average inflation rate
6.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$147
Price difference ($100 base)
$46.59
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1969 → 1975
$147
$100 in 1975 → 1969
$68.22
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1975
Between 1969 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 46.6%, which works out to an average of
6.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.68 buys in 1975: the 1969 dollar
lost 31.8% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.47: $1,000 becomes
$1,466, and $10,000 becomes $14,659.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.47
$5.00
$7.33
$10.00
$14.66
$20.00
$29.32
$50.00
$73.30
$100
$147
$500
$733
$1,000
$1,466
$5,000
$7,330
$10,000
$14,659
$100,000
$146,594
$1,000,000
$1,465,940
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1975
Between 1969 and 1975, energy rose the most, up 69.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 27.6%, against 46.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.58%
$147
Energy
9.22%
$170
Food
8.28%
$161
Housing
6.89%
$149
Medical care
6.86%
$149
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.81%
$140
Transportation
5.81%
$140
Apparel
4.15%
$128
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1975 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1969, at end
1969–1970
5.72%
5.7%
$106
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$147
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $114 by
1972, on its way to $147 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $147; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1975: $100 is worth $147 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1975/