$100 in 1930 is worth $1,418 in 2014,
because prices increased 1317.6% over that period, an average of
3.21% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$1,418
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1317.6%
Average inflation rate
3.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,418
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,318
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1930 → 2014
$1,418
$100 in 2014 → 1930
$7.05
What happened to prices between 1930 and 2014
Between 1930 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1317.6%, which works out to an average of
3.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2014: the 1930 dollar
lost 92.9% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2014 at the same ratio, 14.18: $1,000 becomes
$14,176, and $10,000 becomes $141,758.
Amount in 1930
Value in 2014
$1.00
$14.18
$5.00
$70.88
$10.00
$142
$20.00
$284
$50.00
$709
$100
$1,418
$500
$7,088
$1,000
$14,176
$5,000
$70,879
$10,000
$141,758
$100,000
$1,417,581
$1,000,000
$14,175,808
Inflation by spending category, 1930–2014
Between 1930 and 2014, food rose the most, up 1455.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 426.9%, against 1317.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.21%
$1,418
Food
3.32%
$1,556
Apparel
2.00%
$527
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 2014
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 1930–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,418
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $232 by
1970, on its way to $1,418 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $1,418; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,418 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2014/