$100 in 1929 is worth $288 in 1974,
because prices increased 188.3% over that period, an average of
2.38% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$288
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
188.3%
Average inflation rate
2.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$288
Price difference ($100 base)
$188
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1929 → 1974
$288
$100 in 1974 → 1929
$34.69
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1974
Between 1929 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 188.3%, which works out to an average of
2.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1974: the 1929 dollar
lost 65.3% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1974 at the same ratio, 2.88: $1,000 becomes
$2,883, and $10,000 becomes $28,830.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1974
$1.00
$2.88
$5.00
$14.42
$10.00
$28.83
$20.00
$57.66
$50.00
$144
$100
$288
$500
$1,442
$1,000
$2,883
$5,000
$14,415
$10,000
$28,830
$100,000
$288,304
$1,000,000
$2,883,041
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1974
Between 1929 and 1974, food rose the most, up 233.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 181.0%, against 188.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.38%
$288
Food
2.72%
$334
Apparel
2.32%
$281
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.3% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1929–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$288
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $152 by
1951, on its way to $288 in 1974; 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: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $288; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1974: $100 is worth $288 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1974/