$100 in 1929 is worth $1,275 in 2010,
because prices increased 1175.2% over that period, an average of
3.19% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$1,275
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1175.2%
Average inflation rate
3.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,275
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,175
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1929 → 2010
$1,275
$100 in 2010 → 1929
$7.84
What happened to prices between 1929 and 2010
Between 1929 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1175.2%, which works out to an average of
3.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2010: the 1929 dollar
lost 92.2% of its purchasing power over
these 81 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 2010 at the same ratio, 12.75: $1,000 becomes
$12,752, and $10,000 becomes $127,518.
Amount in 1929
Value in 2010
$1.00
$12.75
$5.00
$63.76
$10.00
$128
$20.00
$255
$50.00
$638
$100
$1,275
$500
$6,376
$1,000
$12,752
$5,000
$63,759
$10,000
$127,518
$100,000
$1,275,181
$1,000,000
$12,751,813
Inflation by spending category, 1929–2010
Between 1929 and 2010, food rose the most, up 1231.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 383.8%, against 1175.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.19%
$1,275
Food
3.25%
$1,331
Apparel
1.97%
$484
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 2010
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 1929–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,275
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $215 by
1969, on its way to $1,275 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $1,275; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,275 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2010/