$100 in 1930 is worth $816 in 1991,
because prices increased 715.6% over that period, an average of
3.50% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$816
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
715.6%
Average inflation rate
3.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$816
Price difference ($100 base)
$716
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1930 → 1991
$816
$100 in 1991 → 1930
$12.26
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1991
Between 1930 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 715.6%, which works out to an average of
3.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1991: the 1930 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1991 at the same ratio, 8.16: $1,000 becomes
$8,156, and $10,000 becomes $81,557.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1991
$1.00
$8.16
$5.00
$40.78
$10.00
$81.56
$20.00
$163
$50.00
$408
$100
$816
$500
$4,078
$1,000
$8,156
$5,000
$40,778
$10,000
$81,557
$100,000
$815,569
$1,000,000
$8,155,689
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1991
Between 1930 and 1991, food rose the most, up 773.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 431.8%, against 715.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.50%
$816
Food
3.62%
$874
Apparel
2.78%
$532
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 1991
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 1930–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$783
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$816
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $177 by
1960, on its way to $816 in 1991; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $816; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1991: $100 is worth $816 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1991/