$100 in 1931 is worth $292 in 1973,
because prices increased 192.1% over that period, an average of
2.59% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$292
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
192.1%
Average inflation rate
2.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$292
Price difference ($100 base)
$192
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1931 → 1973
$292
$100 in 1973 → 1931
$34.23
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1973
Between 1931 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 192.1%, which works out to an average of
2.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1973: the 1931 dollar
lost 65.8% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.92: $1,000 becomes
$2,921, and $10,000 becomes $29,211.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.92
$5.00
$14.61
$10.00
$29.21
$20.00
$58.42
$50.00
$146
$100
$292
$500
$1,461
$1,000
$2,921
$5,000
$14,605
$10,000
$29,211
$100,000
$292,105
$1,000,000
$2,921,053
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1973
Between 1931 and 1973, food rose the most, up 273.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.6%, against 192.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.59%
$292
Food
3.19%
$374
Apparel
2.60%
$294
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 1973
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 1931–1973 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$195
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$255
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$292
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $171 by
1951, on its way to $292 in 1973; 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 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $292; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1973: $100 is worth $292 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1973/