$100 in 1969 is worth $322 in 1988,
because prices increased 222.3% over that period, an average of
6.35% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$322
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
222.3%
Average inflation rate
6.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$322
Price difference ($100 base)
$222
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1969 → 1988
$322
$100 in 1988 → 1969
$31.02
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1988
Between 1969 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 222.3%, which works out to an average of
6.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1988: the 1969 dollar
lost 69.0% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1988 at the same ratio, 3.22: $1,000 becomes
$3,223, and $10,000 becomes $32,234.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1988
$1.00
$3.22
$5.00
$16.12
$10.00
$32.23
$20.00
$64.47
$50.00
$161
$100
$322
$500
$1,612
$1,000
$3,223
$5,000
$16,117
$10,000
$32,234
$100,000
$322,343
$1,000,000
$3,223,433
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1988
Between 1969 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 334.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 103.2%, against 222.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.35%
$322
Medical care
8.04%
$434
Energy
6.98%
$360
Housing
6.79%
$349
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.34%
$321
Food
6.29%
$319
Transportation
6.04%
$304
Apparel
3.80%
$203
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1988
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.62% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$322
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $178 by
1978, on its way to $322 in 1988; 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 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $322; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1988: $100 is worth $322 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1988/