$100 in 1969 is worth $594 in 2010,
because prices increased 494.2% over that period, an average of
4.44% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$594
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
494.2%
Average inflation rate
4.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$594
Price difference ($100 base)
$494
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1969 → 2010
$594
$100 in 2010 → 1969
$16.83
What happened to prices between 1969 and 2010
Between 1969 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 494.2%, which works out to an average of
4.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2010: the 1969 dollar
lost 83.2% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 2010 at the same ratio, 5.94: $1,000 becomes
$5,942, and $10,000 becomes $59,416.
Amount in 1969
Value in 2010
$1.00
$5.94
$5.00
$29.71
$10.00
$59.42
$20.00
$119
$50.00
$297
$100
$594
$500
$2,971
$1,000
$5,942
$5,000
$29,708
$10,000
$59,416
$100,000
$594,158
$1,000,000
$5,941,580
Inflation by spending category, 1969–2010
Between 1969 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 1117.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 110.4%, against 494.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.44%
$594
Medical care
6.29%
$1,218
Energy
5.37%
$853
Housing
4.62%
$636
Food
4.43%
$592
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.36%
$576
Transportation
4.21%
$542
Apparel
1.83%
$210
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$594
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $338 by
1989, on its way to $594 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $594; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 2010: $100 is worth $594 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2010/