$100 in 1969 is worth $310 in 1987,
because prices increased 209.5% over that period, an average of
6.48% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$310
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
209.5%
Average inflation rate
6.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$310
Price difference ($100 base)
$210
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1969 → 1987
$310
$100 in 1987 → 1969
$32.31
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1987
Between 1969 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 209.5%, which works out to an average of
6.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1987: the 1969 dollar
lost 67.7% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1987 at the same ratio, 3.10: $1,000 becomes
$3,095, and $10,000 becomes $30,954.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1987
$1.00
$3.10
$5.00
$15.48
$10.00
$30.95
$20.00
$61.91
$50.00
$155
$100
$310
$500
$1,548
$1,000
$3,095
$5,000
$15,477
$10,000
$30,954
$100,000
$309,537
$1,000,000
$3,095,368
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1987
Between 1969 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 307.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 94.7%, against 209.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.48%
$310
Medical care
8.12%
$408
Energy
7.33%
$357
Housing
6.96%
$336
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.45%
$308
Food
6.41%
$306
Transportation
6.20%
$295
Apparel
3.77%
$195
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1987
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$310
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $178 by
1978, on its way to $310 in 1987; 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 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $310; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1987: $100 is worth $310 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1987/