$100 in 1930 is worth $1,306 in 2010,
because prices increased 1205.7% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$1,306
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1205.7%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,306
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,206
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1930 → 2010
$1,306
$100 in 2010 → 1930
$7.66
What happened to prices between 1930 and 2010
Between 1930 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1205.7%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2010: the 1930 dollar
lost 92.3% of its purchasing power over
these 80 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 2010 at the same ratio, 13.06: $1,000 becomes
$13,057, and $10,000 becomes $130,572.
Amount in 1930
Value in 2010
$1.00
$13.06
$5.00
$65.29
$10.00
$131
$20.00
$261
$50.00
$653
$100
$1,306
$500
$6,529
$1,000
$13,057
$5,000
$65,286
$10,000
$130,572
$100,000
$1,305,725
$1,000,000
$13,057,246
Inflation by spending category, 1930–2010
Between 1930 and 2010, food rose the most, up 1307.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 393.8%, against 1205.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$1,306
Food
3.36%
$1,408
Apparel
2.02%
$494
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 2010
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 1930–2010 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,031
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,306
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $232 by
1970, on its way to $1,306 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $1,306; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,306 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2010/