$100 in 1931 is worth $324 in 1974,
because prices increased 224.3% over that period, an average of
2.77% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$324
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
224.3%
Average inflation rate
2.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$324
Price difference ($100 base)
$224
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1931 → 1974
$324
$100 in 1974 → 1931
$30.83
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1974
Between 1931 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 224.3%, which works out to an average of
2.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1974: the 1931 dollar
lost 69.2% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1974 at the same ratio, 3.24: $1,000 becomes
$3,243, and $10,000 becomes $32,434.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1974
$1.00
$3.24
$5.00
$16.22
$10.00
$32.43
$20.00
$64.87
$50.00
$162
$100
$324
$500
$1,622
$1,000
$3,243
$5,000
$16,217
$10,000
$32,434
$100,000
$324,342
$1,000,000
$3,243,421
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1974
Between 1931 and 1974, food rose the most, up 327.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 215.5%, against 224.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.77%
$324
Food
3.43%
$427
Apparel
2.71%
$315
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$324
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $176 by
1953, on its way to $324 in 1974; 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: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $324; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1974: $100 is worth $324 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1974/