$100 in 1969 is worth $415 in 1995,
because prices increased 315.3% over that period, an average of
5.63% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$415
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
315.3%
Average inflation rate
5.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$415
Price difference ($100 base)
$315
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1969 → 1995
$415
$100 in 1995 → 1969
$24.08
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1995
Between 1969 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 315.3%, which works out to an average of
5.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1995: the 1969 dollar
lost 75.9% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1995 at the same ratio, 4.15: $1,000 becomes
$4,153, and $10,000 becomes $41,526.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1995
$1.00
$4.15
$5.00
$20.76
$10.00
$41.53
$20.00
$83.05
$50.00
$208
$100
$415
$500
$2,076
$1,000
$4,153
$5,000
$20,763
$10,000
$41,526
$100,000
$415,259
$1,000,000
$4,152,589
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1995
Between 1969 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 591.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 132.4%, against 315.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.63%
$415
Medical care
7.72%
$691
Housing
5.83%
$437
Energy
5.72%
$424
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.67%
$420
Food
5.48%
$400
Transportation
5.37%
$390
Apparel
3.30%
$232
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$415
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $263 by
1982, on its way to $415 in 1995; 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 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $415; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1995: $100 is worth $415 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1995/