$100 in 1929 is worth $1,007 in 2000,
because prices increased 907.0% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$1,007
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
907.0%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,007
Price difference ($100 base)
$907
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1929 → 2000
$1,007
$100 in 2000 → 1929
$9.93
What happened to prices between 1929 and 2000
Between 1929 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 907.0%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2000: the 1929 dollar
lost 90.1% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 2000 at the same ratio, 10.07: $1,000 becomes
$10,070, and $10,000 becomes $100,702.
Amount in 1929
Value in 2000
$1.00
$10.07
$5.00
$50.35
$10.00
$101
$20.00
$201
$50.00
$504
$100
$1,007
$500
$5,035
$1,000
$10,070
$5,000
$50,351
$10,000
$100,702
$100,000
$1,007,018
$1,000,000
$10,070,175
Inflation by spending category, 1929–2000
Between 1929 and 2000, food rose the most, up 917.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 424.7%, against 907.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$1,007
Food
3.32%
$1,017
Apparel
2.36%
$525
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 2000
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 1929–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,007
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $181 by
1964, on its way to $1,007 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $1,007; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 2000: $100 is worth $1,007 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2000/