$100 in 1927 is worth $87.36 in 1931,
because prices declined 12.6% over that period, an average of
3.32% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$87.36
in 1931
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-12.6%
Average inflation rate
-3.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$87.36
Price difference ($100 base)
-$12.64
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1931
15.2
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
$100 in 1927 → 1931
$87.36
$100 in 1931 → 1927
$114
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1931
Between 1927 and 1931, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 15.2.
Cumulatively, prices declined 12.6%, which works out to an average of
-3.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$1.14 buys in 1931: the 1927 dollar
gained 14.5% in purchasing power over
these 4 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
Every 1927 amount converts to 1931 at the same ratio, 0.87: $1,000 becomes
$874, and $10,000 becomes $8,736.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1931
$1.00
$0.87
$5.00
$4.37
$10.00
$8.74
$20.00
$17.47
$50.00
$43.68
$100
$87.36
$500
$437
$1,000
$874
$5,000
$4,368
$10,000
$8,736
$100,000
$87,356
$1,000,000
$873,563
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1931
Every category fell between 1927 and 1931: food the most, down 21.3%, and apparel the least, down 13.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1931, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
-3.32%
$87.36
Apparel
-3.43%
$86.96
Food
-5.82%
$78.66
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1927: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1927 to 1931
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (9.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1931 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1931
-8.98%
-9.0%
$87.36
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $98.28 by
1929, on its way to $87.36 in 1931; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 0.0% in 1929, and prices fell 9.0% in 1931, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1931, prices fell 9.0% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $87.36; the year's average CPI of 15.2 is the level
behind every 1931 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.0% in 1931, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3% decline
in 1930, as falling wages, collapsing farm prices, and a fresh
wave of bank failures fed a downward spiral that the still-contracting
economy could not shake. More than 2,000 banks failed during the year, far
more than in 1930, as depositors who had watched earlier banks go under
pulled their cash out of ones they feared were next. The crisis went
international that September, when Britain suspended the gold standard amid
a run on sterling. The Federal Reserve’s response made the domestic downturn
worse before it made anything better: to defend the dollar’s own gold
backing, the Fed raised its discount rate sharply that October, in two steps
from 1.5% to 3.5%, tightening credit at the exact moment the economy needed
the opposite. Not every headline that year was grim. The Empire State
Building opened its doors on May 1, briefly the tallest building in the
world, though so much of Manhattan’s office space sat vacant amid the
Depression that tenants stayed scarce and New Yorkers took to calling it the
“Empty State Building.” Consumer prices had now fallen for two straight
years and stood 53.5% above their 1913 level, down from the
68.7% margin of just twelve months before. First-class postage remained at 2
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1931: $100 is worth $87.36 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1931/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1931. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1931/