$100 in 1929 is worth $1,036 in 2001,
because prices increased 935.7% over that period, an average of
3.30% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$1,036
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
935.7%
Average inflation rate
3.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,036
Price difference ($100 base)
$936
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1929 → 2001
$1,036
$100 in 2001 → 1929
$9.66
What happened to prices between 1929 and 2001
Between 1929 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 935.7%, which works out to an average of
3.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2001: the 1929 dollar
lost 90.3% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 2001 at the same ratio, 10.36: $1,000 becomes
$10,357, and $10,000 becomes $103,567.
Amount in 1929
Value in 2001
$1.00
$10.36
$5.00
$51.78
$10.00
$104
$20.00
$207
$50.00
$518
$100
$1,036
$500
$5,178
$1,000
$10,357
$5,000
$51,784
$10,000
$103,567
$100,000
$1,035,673
$1,000,000
$10,356,725
Inflation by spending category, 1929–2001
Between 1929 and 2001, food rose the most, up 949.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 415.4%, against 935.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.30%
$1,036
Food
3.32%
$1,049
Apparel
2.30%
$515
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 2001
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 1929–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$1,036
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $181 by
1964, on its way to $1,036 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $1,036; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 2001: $100 is worth $1,036 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2001/