$100 in 1930 is worth $341 in 1976,
because prices increased 240.7% over that period, an average of
2.70% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$341
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
240.7%
Average inflation rate
2.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$341
Price difference ($100 base)
$241
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1930 → 1976
$341
$100 in 1976 → 1930
$29.35
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1976
Between 1930 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 240.7%, which works out to an average of
2.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1976: the 1930 dollar
lost 70.7% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1976 at the same ratio, 3.41: $1,000 becomes
$3,407, and $10,000 becomes $34,072.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1976
$1.00
$3.41
$5.00
$17.04
$10.00
$34.07
$20.00
$68.14
$50.00
$170
$100
$341
$500
$1,704
$1,000
$3,407
$5,000
$17,036
$10,000
$34,072
$100,000
$340,719
$1,000,000
$3,407,186
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1976
Between 1930 and 1976, food rose the most, up 294.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 210.7%, against 240.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.70%
$341
Food
3.03%
$395
Apparel
2.50%
$311
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 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1930–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$341
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $159 by
1952, on its way to $341 in 1976; 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: 1976
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $341; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1976: $100 is worth $341 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1976/