$100 in 1931 is worth $177 in 1954,
because prices increased 77.0% over that period, an average of
2.51% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$177
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
77.0%
Average inflation rate
2.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$177
Price difference ($100 base)
$76.97
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1931 → 1954
$177
$100 in 1954 → 1931
$56.51
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1954
Between 1931 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 77.0%, which works out to an average of
2.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1954: the 1931 dollar
lost 43.5% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.77: $1,000 becomes
$1,770, and $10,000 becomes $17,697.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.77
$5.00
$8.85
$10.00
$17.70
$20.00
$35.39
$50.00
$88.49
$100
$177
$500
$885
$1,000
$1,770
$5,000
$8,849
$10,000
$17,697
$100,000
$176,974
$1,000,000
$1,769,737
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1954
Between 1931 and 1954, food rose the most, up 118.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 95.9%, against 77.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.51%
$177
Food
3.46%
$219
Apparel
2.97%
$196
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 1954
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1954 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1931, at end
1931–1940
-0.91%
-7.9%
$92.11
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$159
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$177
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $107 by
1942, on its way to $177 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $177; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1954: $100 is worth $177 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1954/