$100 in 1929 is worth $1,384 in 2014,
because prices increased 1284.4% over that period, an average of
3.14% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$1,384
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1284.4%
Average inflation rate
3.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,384
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,284
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1929 → 2014
$1,384
$100 in 2014 → 1929
$7.22
What happened to prices between 1929 and 2014
Between 1929 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1284.4%, which works out to an average of
3.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2014: the 1929 dollar
lost 92.8% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 2014 at the same ratio, 13.84: $1,000 becomes
$13,844, and $10,000 becomes $138,442.
Amount in 1929
Value in 2014
$1.00
$13.84
$5.00
$69.22
$10.00
$138
$20.00
$277
$50.00
$692
$100
$1,384
$500
$6,922
$1,000
$13,844
$5,000
$69,221
$10,000
$138,442
$100,000
$1,384,421
$1,000,000
$13,844,211
Inflation by spending category, 1929–2014
Between 1929 and 2014, food rose the most, up 1371.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 416.3%, against 1284.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.14%
$1,384
Food
3.21%
$1,471
Apparel
1.95%
$516
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 2014
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 1929–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,384
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $215 by
1969, on its way to $1,384 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $1,384; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,384 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2014/