$100 in 1929 is worth $1,433 in 2017,
because prices increased 1333.5% over that period, an average of
3.07% a year.
$100 in 1929 has
the same buying power as
$1,433
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1333.5%
Average inflation rate
3.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,433
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,333
CPI in 1929
17.1
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1929 → 2017
$1,433
$100 in 2017 → 1929
$6.98
What happened to prices between 1929 and 2017
Between 1929 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1333.5%, which works out to an average of
3.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1929 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2017: the 1929 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 88 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 2017 at the same ratio, 14.33: $1,000 becomes
$14,335, and $10,000 becomes $143,345.
Amount in 1929
Value in 2017
$1.00
$14.33
$5.00
$71.67
$10.00
$143
$20.00
$287
$50.00
$717
$100
$1,433
$500
$7,167
$1,000
$14,335
$5,000
$71,673
$10,000
$143,345
$100,000
$1,433,450
$1,000,000
$14,334,503
Inflation by spending category, 1929–2017
Between 1929 and 2017, food rose the most, up 1415.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 408.6%, against 1333.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1929
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1929 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.07%
$1,433
Food
3.14%
$1,516
Apparel
1.87%
$509
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 2017
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 1929–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,433
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1929
$100 from 1929 had already become $288 by
1974, on its way to $1,433 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1929 had the buying
power of $1,433; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1929 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,433 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1929 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1929-to-2017/