$100 in 1969 is worth $299 in 1986,
because prices increased 198.6% over that period, an average of
6.65% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$299
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
198.6%
Average inflation rate
6.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$299
Price difference ($100 base)
$199
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1969 → 1986
$299
$100 in 1986 → 1969
$33.49
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1986
Between 1969 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 198.6%, which works out to an average of
6.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1986: the 1969 dollar
lost 66.5% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1986 at the same ratio, 2.99: $1,000 becomes
$2,986, and $10,000 becomes $29,864.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1986
$1.00
$2.99
$5.00
$14.93
$10.00
$29.86
$20.00
$59.73
$50.00
$149
$100
$299
$500
$1,493
$1,000
$2,986
$5,000
$14,932
$10,000
$29,864
$100,000
$298,638
$1,000,000
$2,986,376
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1986
Between 1969 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 282.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 86.4%, against 198.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.65%
$299
Medical care
8.21%
$382
Energy
7.75%
$356
Housing
7.20%
$326
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.58%
$296
Food
6.54%
$294
Transportation
6.39%
$287
Apparel
3.73%
$186
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$299
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $165 by
1977, on its way to $299 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $299; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1986: $100 is worth $299 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1986/