$100 in 1929 is worth $974 in 1999,
because prices increased 874.3% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$974
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
874.3%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$974
Price difference ($100 base)
$874
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1929 → 1999
$974
$100 in 1999 → 1929
$10.26
What happened to prices between 1929 and 1999
Between 1929 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 874.3%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1999: the 1929 dollar
lost 89.7% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 1999 at the same ratio, 9.74: $1,000 becomes
$9,743, and $10,000 becomes $97,427.
Amount in 1929
Value in 1999
$1.00
$9.74
$5.00
$48.71
$10.00
$97.43
$20.00
$195
$50.00
$487
$100
$974
$500
$4,871
$1,000
$9,743
$5,000
$48,713
$10,000
$97,427
$100,000
$974,269
$1,000,000
$9,742,690
Inflation by spending category, 1929–1999
Between 1929 and 1999, food rose the most, up 894.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 431.6%, against 874.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$974
Food
3.34%
$995
Apparel
2.42%
$532
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 1999
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 1929–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$974
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $181 by
1964, on its way to $974 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $974; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 1999: $100 is worth $974 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-1999/