$100 in 1969 is worth $444 in 1998,
because prices increased 344.1% over that period, an average of
5.28% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$444
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
344.1%
Average inflation rate
5.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$444
Price difference ($100 base)
$344
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1969 → 1998
$444
$100 in 1998 → 1969
$22.52
What happened to prices between 1969 and 1998
Between 1969 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 344.1%, which works out to an average of
5.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1998: the 1969 dollar
lost 77.5% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1998 at the same ratio, 4.44: $1,000 becomes
$4,441, and $10,000 becomes $44,414.
Amount in 1969
Value in 1998
$1.00
$4.44
$5.00
$22.21
$10.00
$44.41
$20.00
$88.83
$50.00
$222
$100
$444
$500
$2,221
$1,000
$4,441
$5,000
$22,207
$10,000
$44,414
$100,000
$444,142
$1,000,000
$4,441,417
Inflation by spending category, 1969–1998
Between 1969 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 658.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 134.2%, against 344.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.28%
$444
Medical care
7.24%
$759
Housing
5.50%
$472
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.34%
$452
Food
5.18%
$433
Energy
5.03%
$415
Transportation
4.87%
$397
Apparel
2.98%
$234
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$444
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $271 by
1983, on its way to $444 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $444; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 1998: $100 is worth $444 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-1998/