$100 in 1929 is worth $237 in 1971,
because prices increased 136.8% over that period, an average of
2.07% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$237
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
136.8%
Average inflation rate
2.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$237
Price difference ($100 base)
$137
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1929 → 1971
$237
$100 in 1971 → 1929
$42.22
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1971
Between 1929 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 136.8%, which works out to an average of
2.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1971: the 1929 dollar
lost 57.8% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.37: $1,000 becomes
$2,368, and $10,000 becomes $23,684.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.37
$5.00
$11.84
$10.00
$23.68
$20.00
$47.37
$50.00
$118
$100
$237
$500
$1,184
$1,000
$2,368
$5,000
$11,842
$10,000
$23,684
$100,000
$236,842
$1,000,000
$2,368,421
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1971
Between 1929 and 1971, apparel rose the most, up 147.4%, while food rose the least, up 144.8%, against 136.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.07%
$237
Apparel
2.18%
$247
Food
2.15%
$245
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 1971
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 1929–1971 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$227
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$237
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $139 by
1949, on its way to $237 in 1971; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $237; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1971: $100 is worth $237 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1971/