$100 in 1930 is worth $656 in 1986,
because prices increased 556.3% over that period, an average of
3.42% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$656
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
556.3%
Average inflation rate
3.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$656
Price difference ($100 base)
$556
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1930 → 1986
$656
$100 in 1986 → 1930
$15.24
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1986
Between 1930 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 556.3%, which works out to an average of
3.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1986: the 1930 dollar
lost 84.8% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 1986 at the same ratio, 6.56: $1,000 becomes
$6,563, and $10,000 becomes $65,629.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1986
$1.00
$6.56
$5.00
$32.81
$10.00
$65.63
$20.00
$131
$50.00
$328
$100
$656
$500
$3,281
$1,000
$6,563
$5,000
$32,814
$10,000
$65,629
$100,000
$656,287
$1,000,000
$6,562,874
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1986
Between 1930 and 1986, food rose the most, up 598.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 337.6%, against 556.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.42%
$656
Food
3.53%
$699
Apparel
2.67%
$438
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 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1930–1986 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$493
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$656
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $173 by
1958, on its way to $656 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $656; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1986: $100 is worth $656 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1986/