$100 in 1929 is worth $141 in 1950,
because prices increased 40.9% over that period, an average of
1.65% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$141
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
40.9%
Average inflation rate
1.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$141
Price difference ($100 base)
$40.94
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1929 → 1950
$141
$100 in 1950 → 1929
$70.95
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1950
Between 1929 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 40.9%, which works out to an average of
1.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1950: the 1929 dollar
lost 29.0% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.41: $1,000 becomes
$1,409, and $10,000 becomes $14,094.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1950
$1.00
$1.41
$5.00
$7.05
$10.00
$14.09
$20.00
$28.19
$50.00
$70.47
$100
$141
$500
$705
$1,000
$1,409
$5,000
$7,047
$10,000
$14,094
$100,000
$140,936
$1,000,000
$1,409,357
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1950
Between 1929 and 1950, apparel rose the most, up 63.2%, while food rose the least, up 53.9%, against 40.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.65%
$141
Apparel
2.36%
$163
Food
2.08%
$154
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 1950
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.3% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1929–1950 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1929, at end
1929–1930
-2.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $81.29 by
1939, on its way to $141 in 1950; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $141; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1950: $100 is worth $141 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1950/