$100 in 1930 is worth $144 in 1950,
because prices increased 44.3% over that period, an average of
1.85% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$144
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
44.3%
Average inflation rate
1.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$144
Price difference ($100 base)
$44.31
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1930 → 1950
$144
$100 in 1950 → 1930
$69.29
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1950
Between 1930 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 44.3%, which works out to an average of
1.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.69 buys in 1950: the 1930 dollar
lost 30.7% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.44: $1,000 becomes
$1,443, and $10,000 becomes $14,431.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1950
$1.00
$1.44
$5.00
$7.22
$10.00
$14.43
$20.00
$28.86
$50.00
$72.16
$100
$144
$500
$722
$1,000
$1,443
$5,000
$7,216
$10,000
$14,431
$100,000
$144,311
$1,000,000
$1,443,114
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1950
Between 1930 and 1950, apparel rose the most, up 66.5%, while food rose the least, up 62.8%, against 44.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.85%
$144
Apparel
2.58%
$167
Food
2.47%
$163
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 1950
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1930–1950 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1930, at end
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.83
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$144
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $83.83 by
1940, on its way to $144 in 1950; 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.
In 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $144; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1950: $100 is worth $144 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1950/