$100 in 1930 is worth $976 in 1998,
because prices increased 876.0% over that period, an average of
3.41% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$976
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
876.0%
Average inflation rate
3.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$976
Price difference ($100 base)
$876
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1930 → 1998
$976
$100 in 1998 → 1930
$10.25
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1998
Between 1930 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 876.0%, which works out to an average of
3.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1998: the 1930 dollar
lost 89.8% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 1998 at the same ratio, 9.76: $1,000 becomes
$9,760, and $10,000 becomes $97,605.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1998
$1.00
$9.76
$5.00
$48.80
$10.00
$97.60
$20.00
$195
$50.00
$488
$100
$976
$500
$4,880
$1,000
$9,760
$5,000
$48,802
$10,000
$97,605
$100,000
$976,048
$1,000,000
$9,760,479
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1998
Between 1930 and 1998, food rose the most, up 930.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 449.6%, against 876.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.41%
$976
Food
3.49%
$1,030
Apparel
2.54%
$550
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 1998
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 1930–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$976
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $189 by
1965, on its way to $976 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $976; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1998: $100 is worth $976 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1998/