$100 in 1930 is worth $161 in 1954,
because prices increased 61.1% over that period, an average of
2.01% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$161
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
61.1%
Average inflation rate
2.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$161
Price difference ($100 base)
$61.08
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1930 → 1954
$161
$100 in 1954 → 1930
$62.08
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1954
Between 1930 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 61.1%, which works out to an average of
2.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1954: the 1930 dollar
lost 37.9% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.61: $1,000 becomes
$1,611, and $10,000 becomes $16,108.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.61
$5.00
$8.05
$10.00
$16.11
$20.00
$32.22
$50.00
$80.54
$100
$161
$500
$805
$1,000
$1,611
$5,000
$8,054
$10,000
$16,108
$100,000
$161,078
$1,000,000
$1,610,778
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1954
Between 1930 and 1954, food rose the most, up 80.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 78.1%, against 61.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.01%
$161
Food
2.50%
$181
Apparel
2.43%
$178
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 1954
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 1930–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$161
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $97.60 by
1942, on its way to $161 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $161; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1954: $100 is worth $161 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1954/