$100 in 1930 is worth $1,468 in 2017,
because prices increased 1367.8% over that period, an average of
3.14% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$1,468
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1367.8%
Average inflation rate
3.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,468
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,368
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1930 → 2017
$1,468
$100 in 2017 → 1930
$6.81
What happened to prices between 1930 and 2017
Between 1930 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1367.8%, which works out to an average of
3.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2017: the 1930 dollar
lost 93.2% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2017 at the same ratio, 14.68: $1,000 becomes
$14,678, and $10,000 becomes $146,778.
Amount in 1930
Value in 2017
$1.00
$14.68
$5.00
$73.39
$10.00
$147
$20.00
$294
$50.00
$734
$100
$1,468
$500
$7,339
$1,000
$14,678
$5,000
$73,389
$10,000
$146,778
$100,000
$1,467,784
$1,000,000
$14,677,844
Inflation by spending category, 1930–2017
Between 1930 and 2017, food rose the most, up 1503.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 419.1%, against 1367.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.14%
$1,468
Food
3.24%
$1,603
Apparel
1.91%
$519
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 2017
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 1930–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,468
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $322 by
1975, on its way to $1,468 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1930 had the buying
power of $1,468; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1930 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,468 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-2017/