$100 in 1969 is worth $248 in 1981,
because prices increased 147.7% over that period, an average of
7.85% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$248
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
147.7%
Average inflation rate
7.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$248
Price difference ($100 base)
$148
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1969 → 1981
$248
$100 in 1981 → 1969
$40.37
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1981
Between 1969 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 147.7%, which works out to an average of
7.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1981: the 1969 dollar
lost 59.6% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1981 at the same ratio, 2.48: $1,000 becomes
$2,477, and $10,000 becomes $24,768.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1981
$1.00
$2.48
$5.00
$12.38
$10.00
$24.77
$20.00
$49.54
$50.00
$124
$100
$248
$500
$1,238
$1,000
$2,477
$5,000
$12,384
$10,000
$24,768
$100,000
$247,684
$1,000,000
$2,476,839
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1981
Between 1969 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 294.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 67.8%, against 147.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.85%
$248
Energy
12.10%
$394
Housing
8.49%
$266
Transportation
8.33%
$261
Medical care
8.28%
$260
Food
8.02%
$252
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.28%
$232
Apparel
4.41%
$168
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1981 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1969, at end
1969–1970
5.72%
5.7%
$106
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$225
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$248
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $147 by
1975, on its way to $248 in 1981; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1972.
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $248; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1981: $100 is worth $248 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1981/