$100 in 1929 is worth $354 in 1977,
because prices increased 254.4% over that period, an average of
2.67% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$354
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
254.4%
Average inflation rate
2.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$354
Price difference ($100 base)
$254
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1929 → 1977
$354
$100 in 1977 → 1929
$28.22
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1977
Between 1929 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 254.4%, which works out to an average of
2.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1977: the 1929 dollar
lost 71.8% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1977 at the same ratio, 3.54: $1,000 becomes
$3,544, and $10,000 becomes $35,439.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1977
$1.00
$3.54
$5.00
$17.72
$10.00
$35.44
$20.00
$70.88
$50.00
$177
$100
$354
$500
$1,772
$1,000
$3,544
$5,000
$17,719
$10,000
$35,439
$100,000
$354,386
$1,000,000
$3,543,860
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1977
Between 1929 and 1977, food rose the most, up 297.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 218.2%, against 254.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.67%
$354
Food
2.91%
$397
Apparel
2.44%
$318
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 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.3% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1929–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$354
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $156 by
1953, on its way to $354 in 1977; 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: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $354; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1977: $100 is worth $354 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1977/