$100 in 1929 is worth $532 in 1981,
because prices increased 431.6% over that period, an average of
3.27% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$532
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
431.6%
Average inflation rate
3.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$532
Price difference ($100 base)
$432
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1929 → 1981
$532
$100 in 1981 → 1929
$18.81
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1981
Between 1929 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 431.6%, which works out to an average of
3.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1981: the 1929 dollar
lost 81.2% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1981 at the same ratio, 5.32: $1,000 becomes
$5,316, and $10,000 becomes $53,158.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1981
$1.00
$5.32
$5.00
$26.58
$10.00
$53.16
$20.00
$106
$50.00
$266
$100
$532
$500
$2,658
$1,000
$5,316
$5,000
$26,579
$10,000
$53,158
$100,000
$531,579
$1,000,000
$5,315,789
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1981
Between 1929 and 1981, food rose the most, up 467.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 285.8%, against 431.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.27%
$532
Food
3.39%
$567
Apparel
2.63%
$386
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.3% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1929–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$482
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$532
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $157 by
1955, on its way to $532 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $532; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1981: $100 is worth $532 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1981/