$100 in 1929 is worth $157 in 1954,
because prices increased 57.3% over that period, an average of
1.83% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$157
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
57.3%
Average inflation rate
1.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$157
Price difference ($100 base)
$57.31
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1929 → 1954
$157
$100 in 1954 → 1929
$63.57
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1954
Between 1929 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 57.3%, which works out to an average of
1.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1954: the 1929 dollar
lost 36.4% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.57: $1,000 becomes
$1,573, and $10,000 becomes $15,731.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.57
$5.00
$7.87
$10.00
$15.73
$20.00
$31.46
$50.00
$78.65
$100
$157
$500
$787
$1,000
$1,573
$5,000
$7,865
$10,000
$15,731
$100,000
$157,310
$1,000,000
$1,573,099
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1954
Between 1929 and 1954, apparel rose the most, up 74.5%, while food rose the least, up 70.9%, against 57.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.83%
$157
Apparel
2.25%
$174
Food
2.17%
$171
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 1954
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 1929–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$157
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $85.96 by
1941, on its way to $157 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $157; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1954: $100 is worth $157 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1954/