$100 in 1930 is worth $363 in 1977,
because prices increased 262.9% over that period, an average of
2.78% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$363
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
262.9%
Average inflation rate
2.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$363
Price difference ($100 base)
$263
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1930 → 1977
$363
$100 in 1977 → 1930
$27.56
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1977
Between 1930 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 262.9%, which works out to an average of
2.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1977: the 1930 dollar
lost 72.4% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1977 at the same ratio, 3.63: $1,000 becomes
$3,629, and $10,000 becomes $36,287.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1977
$1.00
$3.63
$5.00
$18.14
$10.00
$36.29
$20.00
$72.57
$50.00
$181
$100
$363
$500
$1,814
$1,000
$3,629
$5,000
$18,144
$10,000
$36,287
$100,000
$362,874
$1,000,000
$3,628,743
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1977
Between 1930 and 1977, food rose the most, up 319.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 224.8%, against 262.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.78%
$363
Food
3.10%
$420
Apparel
2.54%
$325
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 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1930–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$363
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $161 by
1954, on its way to $363 in 1977; 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: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $363; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1977: $100 is worth $363 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1977/