$100 in 1929 is worth $1,404 in 2016,
because prices increased 1303.5% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$1,404
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1303.5%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,404
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,304
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1929 → 2016
$1,404
$100 in 2016 → 1929
$7.12
What happened to prices between 1929 and 2016
Between 1929 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1303.5%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2016: the 1929 dollar
lost 92.9% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2016 at the same ratio, 14.04: $1,000 becomes
$14,035, and $10,000 becomes $140,355.
Amount in 1929
Value in 2016
$1.00
$14.04
$5.00
$70.18
$10.00
$140
$20.00
$281
$50.00
$702
$100
$1,404
$500
$7,018
$1,000
$14,035
$5,000
$70,177
$10,000
$140,355
$100,000
$1,403,550
$1,000,000
$14,035,497
Inflation by spending category, 1929–2016
Between 1929 and 2016, food rose the most, up 1402.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 410.3%, against 1303.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$1,404
Food
3.16%
$1,503
Apparel
1.89%
$510
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 2016
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 1929–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,404
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $288 by
1974, on its way to $1,404 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $1,404; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,404 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2016/