$100 in 1969 is worth $469 in 2000,
because prices increased 369.2% over that period, an average of
5.11% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$469
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
369.2%
Average inflation rate
5.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$469
Price difference ($100 base)
$369
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1969 → 2000
$469
$100 in 2000 → 1969
$21.31
What happened to prices between 1969 and 2000
Between 1969 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 369.2%, which works out to an average of
5.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.21 buys in 2000: the 1969 dollar
lost 78.7% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 2000 at the same ratio, 4.69: $1,000 becomes
$4,692, and $10,000 becomes $46,921.
Amount in 1969
Value in 2000
$1.00
$4.69
$5.00
$23.46
$10.00
$46.92
$20.00
$93.84
$50.00
$235
$100
$469
$500
$2,346
$1,000
$4,692
$5,000
$23,460
$10,000
$46,921
$100,000
$469,210
$1,000,000
$4,692,098
Inflation by spending category, 1969–2000
Between 1969 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 717.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 128.2%, against 369.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.11%
$469
Medical care
7.01%
$818
Energy
5.35%
$502
Housing
5.32%
$499
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.13%
$472
Food
4.99%
$452
Transportation
4.81%
$429
Apparel
2.70%
$228
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 2000
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 1969–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$469
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $293 by
1985, on its way to $469 in 2000; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $469; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 2000: $100 is worth $469 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2000/