$100 in 1969 is worth $394 in 1993,
because prices increased 293.7% over that period, an average of
5.88% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$394
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
293.7%
Average inflation rate
5.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$394
Price difference ($100 base)
$294
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1969 → 1993
$394
$100 in 1993 → 1969
$25.40
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1993
Between 1969 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 293.7%, which works out to an average of
5.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1993: the 1969 dollar
lost 74.6% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1993 at the same ratio, 3.94: $1,000 becomes
$3,937, and $10,000 becomes $39,373.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1993
$1.00
$3.94
$5.00
$19.69
$10.00
$39.37
$20.00
$78.75
$50.00
$197
$100
$394
$500
$1,969
$1,000
$3,937
$5,000
$19,687
$10,000
$39,373
$100,000
$393,733
$1,000,000
$3,937,330
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1993
Between 1969 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 531.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 135.4%, against 293.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.88%
$394
Medical care
7.98%
$631
Energy
6.16%
$420
Housing
6.11%
$415
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.91%
$396
Food
5.72%
$380
Transportation
5.55%
$365
Apparel
3.63%
$235
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$394
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $248 by
1981, on its way to $394 in 1993; 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 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $394; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1993: $100 is worth $394 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1993/