$100 in 1969 is worth $645 in 2014,
because prices increased 545.1% over that period, an average of
4.23% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$645
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
545.1%
Average inflation rate
4.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$645
Price difference ($100 base)
$545
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1969 → 2014
$645
$100 in 2014 → 1969
$15.50
What happened to prices between 1969 and 2014
Between 1969 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 545.1%, which works out to an average of
4.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2014: the 1969 dollar
lost 84.5% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2014 at the same ratio, 6.45: $1,000 becomes
$6,451, and $10,000 becomes $64,506.
Amount in 1969
Value in 2014
$1.00
$6.45
$5.00
$32.25
$10.00
$64.51
$20.00
$129
$50.00
$323
$100
$645
$500
$3,225
$1,000
$6,451
$5,000
$32,253
$10,000
$64,506
$100,000
$645,057
$1,000,000
$6,450,572
Inflation by spending category, 1969–2014
Between 1969 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 1264.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 124.5%, against 545.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.23%
$645
Medical care
5.98%
$1,365
Energy
5.21%
$982
Housing
4.37%
$686
Food
4.26%
$654
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.14%
$620
Transportation
4.08%
$605
Apparel
1.81%
$224
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$645
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $371 by
1991, on its way to $645 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $645; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 2014: $100 is worth $645 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2014/