$100 in 1969 is worth $155 in 1976,
because prices increased 55.0% over that period, an average of
6.46% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$155
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.0%
Average inflation rate
6.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$155
Price difference ($100 base)
$55.04
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1969 → 1976
$155
$100 in 1976 → 1969
$64.50
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1976
Between 1969 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.0%, which works out to an average of
6.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1976: the 1969 dollar
lost 35.5% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1976 at the same ratio, 1.55: $1,000 becomes
$1,550, and $10,000 becomes $15,504.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1976
$1.00
$1.55
$5.00
$7.75
$10.00
$15.50
$20.00
$31.01
$50.00
$77.52
$100
$155
$500
$775
$1,000
$1,550
$5,000
$7,752
$10,000
$15,504
$100,000
$155,041
$1,000,000
$1,550,409
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1976
Between 1969 and 1976, energy rose the most, up 81.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 32.4%, against 55.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.46%
$155
Energy
8.92%
$182
Food
7.51%
$166
Medical care
7.23%
$163
Housing
6.78%
$158
Transportation
6.40%
$154
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.91%
$149
Apparel
4.09%
$132
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1976 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1969, at end
1969–1970
5.72%
5.7%
$106
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $114 by
1972, on its way to $155 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $155; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1976: $100 is worth $155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1976/