$100 in 1930 is worth $1,375 in 2012,
because prices increased 1274.8% over that period, an average of
3.25% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$1,375
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1274.8%
Average inflation rate
3.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,375
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,275
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1930 → 2012
$1,375
$100 in 2012 → 1930
$7.27
What happened to prices between 1930 and 2012
Between 1930 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1274.8%, which works out to an average of
3.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2012: the 1930 dollar
lost 92.7% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 2012 at the same ratio, 13.75: $1,000 becomes
$13,748, and $10,000 becomes $137,481.
Amount in 1930
Value in 2012
$1.00
$13.75
$5.00
$68.74
$10.00
$137
$20.00
$275
$50.00
$687
$100
$1,375
$500
$6,874
$1,000
$13,748
$5,000
$68,741
$10,000
$137,481
$100,000
$1,374,814
$1,000,000
$13,748,144
Inflation by spending category, 1930–2012
Between 1930 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1398.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 421.8%, against 1274.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.25%
$1,375
Food
3.36%
$1,499
Apparel
2.04%
$522
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 2012
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 1930–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,375
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $232 by
1970, on its way to $1,375 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $1,375; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,375 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2012/