$100 in 1930 is worth $97.60 in 1942,
because prices declined 2.4% over that period, an average of
0.20% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$97.60
in 1942
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-2.4%
Average inflation rate
-0.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$97.60
Price difference ($100 base)
-$2.40
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1942
16.3
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
$100 in 1930 → 1942
$97.60
$100 in 1942 → 1930
$102
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1942
Between 1930 and 1942, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 16.3.
Cumulatively, prices declined 2.4%, which works out to an average of
-0.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$1.02 buys in 1942: the 1930 dollar
gained 2.5% in purchasing power over
these 12 years.
Consumer prices fell 2.3% in 1930, a mild decline compared with what was
coming but the first sign that the summer 1929 downturn was not going to be
short. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that contraction from
August 1929, and by the time it finally bottomed out in March 1933 it would
run 43 months, the longest of any downturn in the NBER’s chronology back to
1854. Congress made the trade picture worse in June, when President Hoover
signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising duties on more than 20,000
imported goods to some of the highest levels in a century. Trading partners
retaliated with tariffs of their own, and global trade volumes collapsed
over the next several years, deepening a downturn economists still debate
how much the tariff itself worsened. The financial system cracked that fall:
a regional banking panic culminated in the December 11 failure of the Bank
of United States in New York, at the time the largest bank failure in
American history, wiping out more than $200 million in deposits. It was the
first of four banking panics that would hit the country before 1933 was
out. Consumer prices still stood 68.7% above their 1913
starting point, but the direction had clearly turned. First-class postage
held at 2 cents, unchanged for eleven straight years.
Every 1930 amount converts to 1942 at the same ratio, 0.98: $1,000 becomes
$976, and $10,000 becomes $9,760.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1942
$1.00
$0.98
$5.00
$4.88
$10.00
$9.76
$20.00
$19.52
$50.00
$48.80
$100
$97.60
$500
$488
$1,000
$976
$5,000
$4,880
$10,000
$9,760
$100,000
$97,605
$1,000,000
$976,048
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1942
Between 1930 and 1942, apparel rose the most, up 10.3%, while food fell 1.3%, against 2.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1942, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.20%
$97.60
Apparel
0.82%
$110
Food
-0.11%
$98.72
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1930: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1930 to 1942
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.90% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1930–1942 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1930, at end
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.83
1940–1942
7.90%
16.4%
$97.60
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $83.23 by
1936, on its way to $97.60 in 1942; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1942, prices rose 10.9% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $97.60; the year's average CPI of 16.3 is the level
behind every 1942 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1942: $100 is worth $97.60 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1942/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1942. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1942/