$100 in 1931 is worth $159 in 1948,
because prices increased 58.6% over that period, an average of
2.75% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$159
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
58.6%
Average inflation rate
2.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$159
Price difference ($100 base)
$58.55
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1931 → 1948
$159
$100 in 1948 → 1931
$63.07
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1948
Between 1931 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 58.6%, which works out to an average of
2.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1948: the 1931 dollar
lost 36.9% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.59: $1,000 becomes
$1,586, and $10,000 becomes $15,855.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.59
$5.00
$7.93
$10.00
$15.86
$20.00
$31.71
$50.00
$79.28
$100
$159
$500
$793
$1,000
$1,586
$5,000
$7,928
$10,000
$15,855
$100,000
$158,553
$1,000,000
$1,585,526
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1948
Between 1931 and 1948, food rose the most, up 102.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 93.2%, against 58.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.75%
$159
Food
4.23%
$202
Apparel
3.95%
$193
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–).
Decade by decade: 1931 to 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1948 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1931, at end
1931–1940
-0.91%
-7.9%
$92.11
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$159
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $91.45 by
1939, on its way to $159 in 1948; 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.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $159; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1948: $100 is worth $159 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1948/