$100 in 1929 is worth $1,259 in 2008,
because prices increased 1159.1% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$1,259
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1159.1%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,259
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,159
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1929 → 2008
$1,259
$100 in 2008 → 1929
$7.94
What happened to prices between 1929 and 2008
Between 1929 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1159.1%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2008: the 1929 dollar
lost 92.1% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 2008 at the same ratio, 12.59: $1,000 becomes
$12,591, and $10,000 becomes $125,908.
Amount in 1929
Value in 2008
$1.00
$12.59
$5.00
$62.95
$10.00
$126
$20.00
$252
$50.00
$630
$100
$1,259
$500
$6,295
$1,000
$12,591
$5,000
$62,954
$10,000
$125,908
$100,000
$1,259,082
$1,000,000
$12,590,819
Inflation by spending category, 1929–2008
Between 1929 and 2008, food rose the most, up 1197.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 381.4%, against 1159.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$1,259
Food
3.30%
$1,298
Apparel
2.01%
$481
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 2008
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 1929–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$1,259
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $215 by
1969, on its way to $1,259 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $1,259; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 2008: $100 is worth $1,259 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2008/