$100 in 1930 is worth $322 in 1975,
because prices increased 222.2% over that period, an average of
2.63% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$322
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
222.2%
Average inflation rate
2.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$322
Price difference ($100 base)
$222
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1930 → 1975
$322
$100 in 1975 → 1930
$31.04
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1975
Between 1930 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 222.2%, which works out to an average of
2.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1975: the 1930 dollar
lost 69.0% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.22: $1,000 becomes
$3,222, and $10,000 becomes $32,216.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.22
$5.00
$16.11
$10.00
$32.22
$20.00
$64.43
$50.00
$161
$100
$322
$500
$1,611
$1,000
$3,222
$5,000
$16,108
$10,000
$32,216
$100,000
$322,156
$1,000,000
$3,221,557
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1975
Between 1930 and 1975, food rose the most, up 283.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 199.6%, against 222.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.63%
$322
Food
3.03%
$383
Apparel
2.47%
$300
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1930–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$322
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $159 by
1952, on its way to $322 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $322; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1975: $100 is worth $322 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1975/