$100 in 1931 is worth $90.13 in 1932,
because prices declined 9.9% over that period, an average of
9.87% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$90.13
in 1932
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-9.9%
Average inflation rate
-9.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$90.13
Price difference ($100 base)
-$9.87
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1932
13.7
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
$100 in 1931 → 1932
$90.13
$100 in 1932 → 1931
$111
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1932
Between 1931 and 1932, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 9.9%, which works out to an average of
-9.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$1.11 buys in 1932: the 1931 dollar
gained 10.9% in purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices fell 9.0% in 1931, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3% decline
in 1930, as falling wages, collapsing farm prices, and a fresh
wave of bank failures fed a downward spiral that the still-contracting
economy could not shake. More than 2,000 banks failed during the year, far
more than in 1930, as depositors who had watched earlier banks go under
pulled their cash out of ones they feared were next. The crisis went
international that September, when Britain suspended the gold standard amid
a run on sterling. The Federal Reserve’s response made the domestic downturn
worse before it made anything better: to defend the dollar’s own gold
backing, the Fed raised its discount rate sharply that October, in two steps
from 1.5% to 3.5%, tightening credit at the exact moment the economy needed
the opposite. Not every headline that year was grim. The Empire State
Building opened its doors on May 1, briefly the tallest building in the
world, though so much of Manhattan’s office space sat vacant amid the
Depression that tenants stayed scarce and New Yorkers took to calling it the
“Empty State Building.” Consumer prices had now fallen for two straight
years and stood 53.5% above their 1913 level, down from the
68.7% margin of just twelve months before. First-class postage remained at 2
cents.
Every 1931 amount converts to 1932 at the same ratio, 0.90: $1,000 becomes
$901, and $10,000 becomes $9,013.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1932
$1.00
$0.90
$5.00
$4.51
$10.00
$9.01
$20.00
$18.03
$50.00
$45.07
$100
$90.13
$500
$451
$1,000
$901
$5,000
$4,507
$10,000
$9,013
$100,000
$90,132
$1,000,000
$901,316
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1932
Every category fell between 1931 and 1932: food the most, down 17.1%, and apparel the least, down 11.4%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1932, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
-9.87%
$90.13
Apparel
-11.36%
$88.64
Food
-17.05%
$82.95
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1931: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931shrank to $90.13 by 1932; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1932, prices fell 9.9% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $90.13; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1932 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1932: $100 is worth $90.13 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1932/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1932. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1932/