$100 in 1929 is worth $939 in 1997,
because prices increased 838.6% over that period, an average of
3.35% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$939
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
838.6%
Average inflation rate
3.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$939
Price difference ($100 base)
$839
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1929 → 1997
$939
$100 in 1997 → 1929
$10.65
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1997
Between 1929 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 838.6%, which works out to an average of
3.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1997: the 1929 dollar
lost 89.3% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 1997 at the same ratio, 9.39: $1,000 becomes
$9,386, and $10,000 becomes $93,860.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1997
$1.00
$9.39
$5.00
$46.93
$10.00
$93.86
$20.00
$188
$50.00
$469
$100
$939
$500
$4,693
$1,000
$9,386
$5,000
$46,930
$10,000
$93,860
$100,000
$938,596
$1,000,000
$9,385,965
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1997
Between 1929 and 1997, food rose the most, up 853.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 438.1%, against 838.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.35%
$939
Food
3.37%
$953
Apparel
2.51%
$538
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 1997
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 1929–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$939
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $181 by
1964, on its way to $939 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $939; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1997: $100 is worth $939 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1997/