$100 in 1969 is worth $684 in 2018,
because prices increased 584.2% over that period, an average of
4.00% a year.
$100 in 1969 has
the same buying power as
$684
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
584.2%
Average inflation rate
4.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$684
Price difference ($100 base)
$584
CPI in 1969
36.7
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1969 → 2018
$684
$100 in 2018 → 1969
$14.62
What happened to prices between 1969 and 2018
Between 1969 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 36.7 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 584.2%, which works out to an average of
4.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1969 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2018: the 1969 dollar
lost 85.4% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 2018 at the same ratio, 6.84: $1,000 becomes
$6,842, and $10,000 becomes $68,422.
Amount in 1969
Value in 2018
$1.00
$6.84
$5.00
$34.21
$10.00
$68.42
$20.00
$137
$50.00
$342
$100
$684
$500
$3,421
$1,000
$6,842
$5,000
$34,211
$10,000
$68,422
$100,000
$684,215
$1,000,000
$6,842,153
Inflation by spending category, 1969–2018
Between 1969 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 1419.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 121.2%, against 584.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1969
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1969 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.00%
$684
Medical care
5.71%
$1,519
Energy
4.55%
$887
Housing
4.23%
$760
Food
4.00%
$683
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.96%
$671
Transportation
3.69%
$590
Apparel
1.63%
$221
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1969: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1969 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1969–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$684
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1969
$100 from 1969 had already become $394 by
1993, on its way to $684 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1969 had the buying
power of $684; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1969 to 2018: $100 is worth $684 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1969 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1969-to-2018/