$100 in 1930 is worth $840 in 1992,
because prices increased 740.1% over that period, an average of
3.49% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$840
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
740.1%
Average inflation rate
3.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$840
Price difference ($100 base)
$740
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1930 → 1992
$840
$100 in 1992 → 1930
$11.90
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1992
Between 1930 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 740.1%, which works out to an average of
3.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1992: the 1930 dollar
lost 88.1% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1992 at the same ratio, 8.40: $1,000 becomes
$8,401, and $10,000 becomes $84,012.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1992
$1.00
$8.40
$5.00
$42.01
$10.00
$84.01
$20.00
$168
$50.00
$420
$100
$840
$500
$4,201
$1,000
$8,401
$5,000
$42,006
$10,000
$84,012
$100,000
$840,120
$1,000,000
$8,401,198
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1992
Between 1930 and 1992, food rose the most, up 784.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 445.0%, against 740.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.49%
$840
Food
3.58%
$884
Apparel
2.77%
$545
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 1992
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 1930–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$840
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $177 by
1960, on its way to $840 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $840; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1992: $100 is worth $840 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1992/