$100 in 1929 is worth $80.12 in 1932,
because prices declined 19.9% over that period, an average of
7.12% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$80.12
in 1932
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-19.9%
Average inflation rate
-7.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$80.12
Price difference ($100 base)
-$19.88
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1932
13.7
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
$100 in 1929 → 1932
$80.12
$100 in 1932 → 1929
$125
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1932
Between 1929 and 1932, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 19.9%, which works out to an average of
-7.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$1.25 buys in 1932: the 1929 dollar
gained 24.8% in purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices were unchanged in 1929, the CPI’s annual average flat for
the second time in six years and a fitting close to a decade that began with
wartime inflation and ended in rough price stability. By year’s end the
index stood 14.5% below its 1920 peak and roughly 73% above its
1913 starting point, a reminder that even a “stable” decade
left prices well above where they had started. The stability in the cost of
living masked what was building in financial markets. The National Bureau
of Economic Research dates the start of the Great Depression to that
August, the month the business cycle peaked, months before most Americans
noticed anything was wrong. The break came that October: panic selling hit
Wall Street on Black Thursday, October 24, and returned even worse on Black
Tuesday, October 29, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 12% in
a single session. Billions of dollars in paper wealth disappeared within
days, and the crash marked the start of a downturn that would pull consumer
prices into their steepest sustained decline of the 20th century over the
next four years. First-class postage was still 2 cents, a price that would
hold until 1932.
Every 1929 amount converts to 1932 at the same ratio, 0.80: $1,000 becomes
$801, and $10,000 becomes $8,012.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1932
$1.00
$0.80
$5.00
$4.01
$10.00
$8.01
$20.00
$16.02
$50.00
$40.06
$100
$80.12
$500
$401
$1,000
$801
$5,000
$4,006
$10,000
$8,012
$100,000
$80,117
$1,000,000
$801,170
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1932
Every category fell between 1929 and 1932: food the most, down 35.2%, and apparel the least, down 21.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1932, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
-7.12%
$80.12
Apparel
-7.58%
$78.95
Food
-13.44%
$64.85
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1929: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1929 to 1932
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (2.3% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (9.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1929–1932 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1929, at end
1929–1930
-2.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1932
-9.43%
-18.0%
$80.12
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $97.66 by
1930, on its way to $80.12 in 1932; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at -2.3% in 1930, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1932, prices fell 9.9% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $80.12; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1932 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1932: $100 is worth $80.12 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1932/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1932. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1932/