$100 in 1969 is worth $263 in 1982,
because prices increased 162.9% over that period, an average of
7.72% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$263
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
162.9%
Average inflation rate
7.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$263
Price difference ($100 base)
$163
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1969 → 1982
$263
$100 in 1982 → 1969
$38.03
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1982
Between 1969 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 162.9%, which works out to an average of
7.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1982: the 1969 dollar
lost 62.0% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1982 at the same ratio, 2.63: $1,000 becomes
$2,629, and $10,000 becomes $26,294.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1982
$1.00
$2.63
$5.00
$13.15
$10.00
$26.29
$20.00
$52.59
$50.00
$131
$100
$263
$500
$1,315
$1,000
$2,629
$5,000
$13,147
$10,000
$26,294
$100,000
$262,943
$1,000,000
$2,629,428
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1982
Between 1969 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 300.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 72.2%, against 162.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.72%
$263
Energy
11.25%
$400
Medical care
8.53%
$290
Housing
8.39%
$285
Transportation
7.99%
$272
Food
7.71%
$263
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.29%
$249
Apparel
4.27%
$172
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1982 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
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$263
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $147 by
1975, on its way to $263 in 1982; 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 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $263; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1982: $100 is worth $263 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1982/