$100 in 1969 is worth $587 in 2008,
because prices increased 486.7% over that period, an average of
4.64% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$587
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
486.7%
Average inflation rate
4.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$587
Price difference ($100 base)
$487
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1969 → 2008
$587
$100 in 2008 → 1969
$17.05
What happened to prices between 1969 and 2008
Between 1969 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 486.7%, which works out to an average of
4.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2008: the 1969 dollar
lost 83.0% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2008 at the same ratio, 5.87: $1,000 becomes
$5,867, and $10,000 becomes $58,666.
Amount in 1969
Value in 2008
$1.00
$5.87
$5.00
$29.33
$10.00
$58.67
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$293
$100
$587
$500
$2,933
$1,000
$5,867
$5,000
$29,333
$10,000
$58,666
$100,000
$586,657
$1,000,000
$5,866,567
Inflation by spending category, 1969–2008
Between 1969 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 1041.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 109.3%, against 486.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.64%
$587
Medical care
6.44%
$1,141
Energy
5.95%
$954
Housing
4.86%
$636
Food
4.60%
$577
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.52%
$561
Transportation
4.46%
$548
Apparel
1.91%
$209
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 2008
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 1969–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$587
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $338 by
1989, on its way to $587 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $587; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 2008: $100 is worth $587 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2008/