$100 in 1929 is worth $641 in 1986,
because prices increased 540.9% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$641
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
540.9%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$641
Price difference ($100 base)
$541
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1929 → 1986
$641
$100 in 1986 → 1929
$15.60
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1986
Between 1929 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 540.9%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1986: the 1929 dollar
lost 84.4% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1986 at the same ratio, 6.41: $1,000 becomes
$6,409, and $10,000 becomes $64,094.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1986
$1.00
$6.41
$5.00
$32.05
$10.00
$64.09
$20.00
$128
$50.00
$320
$100
$641
$500
$3,205
$1,000
$6,409
$5,000
$32,047
$10,000
$64,094
$100,000
$640,936
$1,000,000
$6,409,357
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1986
Between 1929 and 1986, food rose the most, up 560.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 328.7%, against 540.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$641
Food
3.37%
$661
Apparel
2.59%
$429
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 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.3% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1929–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$641
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $164 by
1957, on its way to $641 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $641; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1986: $100 is worth $641 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1986/