$100 in 1930 is worth $708 in 1988,
because prices increased 608.4% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$708
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
608.4%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$708
Price difference ($100 base)
$608
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1930 → 1988
$708
$100 in 1988 → 1930
$14.12
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1988
Between 1930 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 608.4%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1988: the 1930 dollar
lost 85.9% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1988 at the same ratio, 7.08: $1,000 becomes
$7,084, and $10,000 becomes $70,838.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1988
$1.00
$7.08
$5.00
$35.42
$10.00
$70.84
$20.00
$142
$50.00
$354
$100
$708
$500
$3,542
$1,000
$7,084
$5,000
$35,419
$10,000
$70,838
$100,000
$708,383
$1,000,000
$7,083,832
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1988
Between 1930 and 1988, food rose the most, up 657.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 376.9%, against 608.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$708
Food
3.55%
$758
Apparel
2.73%
$477
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 1988
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 1930–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$708
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $173 by
1958, on its way to $708 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $708; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1988: $100 is worth $708 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1988/