$100 in 1969 is worth $371 in 1991,
because prices increased 271.1% over that period, an average of
6.14% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$371
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
271.1%
Average inflation rate
6.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$371
Price difference ($100 base)
$271
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1969 → 1991
$371
$100 in 1991 → 1969
$26.95
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1991
Between 1969 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 271.1%, which works out to an average of
6.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1991: the 1969 dollar
lost 73.1% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1991 at the same ratio, 3.71: $1,000 becomes
$3,711, and $10,000 becomes $37,112.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1991
$1.00
$3.71
$5.00
$18.56
$10.00
$37.11
$20.00
$74.22
$50.00
$186
$100
$371
$500
$1,856
$1,000
$3,711
$5,000
$18,556
$10,000
$37,112
$100,000
$371,117
$1,000,000
$3,711,172
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1991
Between 1969 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 454.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 126.6%, against 271.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.14%
$371
Medical care
8.10%
$555
Energy
6.66%
$413
Housing
6.42%
$393
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.13%
$370
Food
6.09%
$367
Transportation
5.82%
$347
Apparel
3.79%
$227
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$356
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$371
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $225 by
1980, on its way to $371 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $371; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1991: $100 is worth $371 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1991/