$100 in 1931 is worth $374 in 1976,
because prices increased 274.3% over that period, an average of
2.98% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$374
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
274.3%
Average inflation rate
2.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$374
Price difference ($100 base)
$274
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1931 → 1976
$374
$100 in 1976 → 1931
$26.71
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1976
Between 1931 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 274.3%, which works out to an average of
2.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1976: the 1931 dollar
lost 73.3% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1976 at the same ratio, 3.74: $1,000 becomes
$3,743, and $10,000 becomes $37,434.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1976
$1.00
$3.74
$5.00
$18.72
$10.00
$37.43
$20.00
$74.87
$50.00
$187
$100
$374
$500
$1,872
$1,000
$3,743
$5,000
$18,717
$10,000
$37,434
$100,000
$374,342
$1,000,000
$3,743,421
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1976
Between 1931 and 1976, food rose the most, up 377.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 241.8%, against 274.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.98%
$374
Food
3.54%
$478
Apparel
2.77%
$342
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 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$374
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $176 by
1953, on its way to $374 in 1976; 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: 1976
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $374; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1976: $100 is worth $374 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1976/