$100 in 1929 is worth $1,343 in 2012,
because prices increased 1242.7% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$1,343
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1242.7%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,343
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,243
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1929 → 2012
$1,343
$100 in 2012 → 1929
$7.45
What happened to prices between 1929 and 2012
Between 1929 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1242.7%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2012: the 1929 dollar
lost 92.6% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2012 at the same ratio, 13.43: $1,000 becomes
$13,427, and $10,000 becomes $134,265.
Amount in 1929
Value in 2012
$1.00
$13.43
$5.00
$67.13
$10.00
$134
$20.00
$269
$50.00
$671
$100
$1,343
$500
$6,713
$1,000
$13,427
$5,000
$67,133
$10,000
$134,265
$100,000
$1,342,655
$1,000,000
$13,426,550
Inflation by spending category, 1929–2012
Between 1929 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1316.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 411.2%, against 1242.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$1,343
Food
3.25%
$1,417
Apparel
1.99%
$511
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 2012
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 1929–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,343
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $215 by
1969, on its way to $1,343 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $1,343; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,343 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2012/