$100 in 1969 is worth $198 in 1979,
because prices increased 97.8% over that period, an average of
7.06% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$198
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
97.8%
Average inflation rate
7.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$198
Price difference ($100 base)
$97.82
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1969 → 1979
$198
$100 in 1979 → 1969
$50.55
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1979
Between 1969 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 97.8%, which works out to an average of
7.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1979: the 1969 dollar
lost 49.4% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1979 at the same ratio, 1.98: $1,000 becomes
$1,978, and $10,000 becomes $19,782.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1979
$1.00
$1.98
$5.00
$9.89
$10.00
$19.78
$20.00
$39.56
$50.00
$98.91
$100
$198
$500
$989
$1,000
$1,978
$5,000
$9,891
$10,000
$19,782
$100,000
$197,820
$1,000,000
$1,978,202
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1979
Between 1969 and 1979, energy rose the most, up 164.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 49.5%, against 97.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.06%
$198
Energy
10.23%
$265
Food
7.97%
$215
Medical care
7.78%
$212
Housing
7.50%
$206
Transportation
7.04%
$197
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.47%
$187
Apparel
4.10%
$149
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1969, at end
1969–1970
5.72%
5.7%
$106
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$198
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $134 by
1974, on its way to $198 in 1979; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.3% in 1979, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $198; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1979: $100 is worth $198 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1979/