$100 in 1930 is worth $961 in 1997,
because prices increased 861.1% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$961
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
861.1%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$961
Price difference ($100 base)
$861
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1930 → 1997
$961
$100 in 1997 → 1930
$10.40
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1997
Between 1930 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 861.1%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1997: the 1930 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 1997 at the same ratio, 9.61: $1,000 becomes
$9,611, and $10,000 becomes $96,108.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1997
$1.00
$9.61
$5.00
$48.05
$10.00
$96.11
$20.00
$192
$50.00
$481
$100
$961
$500
$4,805
$1,000
$9,611
$5,000
$48,054
$10,000
$96,108
$100,000
$961,078
$1,000,000
$9,610,778
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1997
Between 1930 and 1997, food rose the most, up 908.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 449.2%, against 861.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$961
Food
3.51%
$1,008
Apparel
2.57%
$549
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 1997
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 1930–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$961
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $189 by
1965, on its way to $961 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $961; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1997: $100 is worth $961 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1997/