$100 in 1931 is worth $354 in 1975,
because prices increased 253.9% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$354
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
253.9%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$354
Price difference ($100 base)
$254
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1931 → 1975
$354
$100 in 1975 → 1931
$28.25
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1975
Between 1931 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 253.9%, which works out to an average of
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1975: the 1931 dollar
lost 71.7% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.54: $1,000 becomes
$3,539, and $10,000 becomes $35,395.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.54
$5.00
$17.70
$10.00
$35.39
$20.00
$70.79
$50.00
$177
$100
$354
$500
$1,770
$1,000
$3,539
$5,000
$17,697
$10,000
$35,395
$100,000
$353,947
$1,000,000
$3,539,474
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1975
Between 1931 and 1975, food rose the most, up 363.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 229.5%, against 253.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$354
Food
3.55%
$464
Apparel
2.75%
$330
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$354
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $176 by
1953, on its way to $354 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $354; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1975: $100 is worth $354 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1975/