$100 in 1969 is worth $483 in 2001,
because prices increased 382.6% over that period, an average of
5.04% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$483
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
382.6%
Average inflation rate
5.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$483
Price difference ($100 base)
$383
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1969 → 2001
$483
$100 in 2001 → 1969
$20.72
What happened to prices between 1969 and 2001
Between 1969 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 382.6%, which works out to an average of
5.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.21 buys in 2001: the 1969 dollar
lost 79.3% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 2001 at the same ratio, 4.83: $1,000 becomes
$4,826, and $10,000 becomes $48,256.
Amount in 1969
Value in 2001
$1.00
$4.83
$5.00
$24.13
$10.00
$48.26
$20.00
$96.51
$50.00
$241
$100
$483
$500
$2,413
$1,000
$4,826
$5,000
$24,128
$10,000
$48,256
$100,000
$482,561
$1,000,000
$4,825,613
Inflation by spending category, 1969–2001
Between 1969 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 755.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 124.1%, against 382.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.04%
$483
Medical care
6.94%
$855
Energy
5.30%
$521
Housing
5.28%
$519
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.06%
$485
Food
4.93%
$467
Transportation
4.68%
$432
Apparel
2.55%
$224
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 2001
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 1969–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$483
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $293 by
1985, on its way to $483 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $483; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 2001: $100 is worth $483 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2001/