$100 in 1929 is worth $796 in 1991,
because prices increased 696.5% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$796
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
696.5%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$796
Price difference ($100 base)
$696
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1929 → 1991
$796
$100 in 1991 → 1929
$12.56
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1991
Between 1929 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 696.5%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1991: the 1929 dollar
lost 87.4% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1991 at the same ratio, 7.96: $1,000 becomes
$7,965, and $10,000 becomes $79,649.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1991
$1.00
$7.96
$5.00
$39.82
$10.00
$79.65
$20.00
$159
$50.00
$398
$100
$796
$500
$3,982
$1,000
$7,965
$5,000
$39,825
$10,000
$79,649
$100,000
$796,491
$1,000,000
$7,964,912
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1991
Between 1929 and 1991, food rose the most, up 726.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 421.1%, against 696.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$796
Food
3.46%
$826
Apparel
2.70%
$521
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 1991
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 1929–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$764
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$796
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $170 by
1959, on its way to $796 in 1991; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $796; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1991: $100 is worth $796 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1991/