$100 in 1930 is worth $1,437 in 2016,
because prices increased 1337.2% over that period, an average of
3.15% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$1,437
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1337.2%
Average inflation rate
3.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,437
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,337
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1930 → 2016
$1,437
$100 in 2016 → 1930
$6.96
What happened to prices between 1930 and 2016
Between 1930 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1337.2%, which works out to an average of
3.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2016: the 1930 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 86 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 2016 at the same ratio, 14.37: $1,000 becomes
$14,372, and $10,000 becomes $143,717.
Amount in 1930
Value in 2016
$1.00
$14.37
$5.00
$71.86
$10.00
$144
$20.00
$287
$50.00
$719
$100
$1,437
$500
$7,186
$1,000
$14,372
$5,000
$71,858
$10,000
$143,717
$100,000
$1,437,168
$1,000,000
$14,371,677
Inflation by spending category, 1930–2016
Between 1930 and 2016, food rose the most, up 1489.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 420.8%, against 1337.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.15%
$1,437
Food
3.27%
$1,589
Apparel
1.94%
$521
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 2016
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 1930–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,437
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $322 by
1975, on its way to $1,437 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $1,437; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,437 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2016/