$100 in 1969 is worth $293 in 1985,
because prices increased 193.2% over that period, an average of
6.95% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$293
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
193.2%
Average inflation rate
6.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$293
Price difference ($100 base)
$193
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1969 → 1985
$293
$100 in 1985 → 1969
$34.11
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1985
Between 1969 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 193.2%, which works out to an average of
6.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1985: the 1969 dollar
lost 65.9% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1985 at the same ratio, 2.93: $1,000 becomes
$2,932, and $10,000 becomes $29,319.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1985
$1.00
$2.93
$5.00
$14.66
$10.00
$29.32
$20.00
$58.64
$50.00
$147
$100
$293
$500
$1,466
$1,000
$2,932
$5,000
$14,659
$10,000
$29,319
$100,000
$293,188
$1,000,000
$2,931,880
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1985
Between 1969 and 1985, energy rose the most, up 309.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 84.9%, against 193.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.95%
$293
Energy
9.21%
$410
Medical care
8.26%
$356
Housing
7.47%
$317
Transportation
7.06%
$298
Food
6.76%
$285
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.74%
$284
Apparel
3.91%
$185
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (5.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1985 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
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$293
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $165 by
1977, on its way to $293 in 1985; 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 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $293; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1985: $100 is worth $293 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1985/