$100 in 1930 is worth $998 in 1999,
because prices increased 897.6% over that period, an average of
3.39% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$998
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
897.6%
Average inflation rate
3.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$998
Price difference ($100 base)
$898
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1930 → 1999
$998
$100 in 1999 → 1930
$10.02
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1999
Between 1930 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 897.6%, which works out to an average of
3.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1999: the 1930 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 1999 at the same ratio, 9.98: $1,000 becomes
$9,976, and $10,000 becomes $99,760.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1999
$1.00
$9.98
$5.00
$49.88
$10.00
$99.76
$20.00
$200
$50.00
$499
$100
$998
$500
$4,988
$1,000
$9,976
$5,000
$49,880
$10,000
$99,760
$100,000
$997,605
$1,000,000
$9,976,048
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1999
Between 1930 and 1999, food rose the most, up 951.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 442.6%, against 897.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.39%
$998
Food
3.47%
$1,052
Apparel
2.48%
$543
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 1999
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 1930–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$998
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $189 by
1965, on its way to $998 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $998; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 1999: $100 is worth $998 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1999/