$100 in 1930 is worth $266 in 1973,
because prices increased 165.9% over that period, an average of
2.30% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$266
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
165.9%
Average inflation rate
2.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$266
Price difference ($100 base)
$166
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1930 → 1973
$266
$100 in 1973 → 1930
$37.61
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1973
Between 1930 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 165.9%, which works out to an average of
2.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1973: the 1930 dollar
lost 62.4% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.66: $1,000 becomes
$2,659, and $10,000 becomes $26,587.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.66
$5.00
$13.29
$10.00
$26.59
$20.00
$53.17
$50.00
$133
$100
$266
$500
$1,329
$1,000
$2,659
$5,000
$13,293
$10,000
$26,587
$100,000
$265,868
$1,000,000
$2,658,683
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1973
Between 1930 and 1973, food rose the most, up 209.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 166.9%, against 165.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.30%
$266
Food
2.66%
$309
Apparel
2.31%
$267
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 1973
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 1930–1973 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$177
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$232
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$266
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $159 by
1952, on its way to $266 in 1973; 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 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $266; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1973: $100 is worth $266 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1973/