$100 in 1930 is worth $913 in 1995,
because prices increased 812.6% over that period, an average of
3.46% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$913
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
812.6%
Average inflation rate
3.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$913
Price difference ($100 base)
$813
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1930 → 1995
$913
$100 in 1995 → 1930
$10.96
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1995
Between 1930 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 812.6%, which works out to an average of
3.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1995: the 1930 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1995 at the same ratio, 9.13: $1,000 becomes
$9,126, and $10,000 becomes $91,257.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1995
$1.00
$9.13
$5.00
$45.63
$10.00
$91.26
$20.00
$183
$50.00
$456
$100
$913
$500
$4,563
$1,000
$9,126
$5,000
$45,629
$10,000
$91,257
$100,000
$912,575
$1,000,000
$9,125,749
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1995
Between 1930 and 1995, food rose the most, up 851.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 445.5%, against 812.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.46%
$913
Food
3.53%
$951
Apparel
2.64%
$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 1995
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 1930–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$913
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $177 by
1960, on its way to $913 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $913; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1995: $100 is worth $913 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1995/