$100 in 1931 is worth $399 in 1977,
because prices increased 298.7% over that period, an average of
3.05% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$399
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
298.7%
Average inflation rate
3.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$399
Price difference ($100 base)
$299
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1931 → 1977
$399
$100 in 1977 → 1931
$25.08
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1977
Between 1931 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 298.7%, which works out to an average of
3.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1977: the 1931 dollar
lost 74.9% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1977 at the same ratio, 3.99: $1,000 becomes
$3,987, and $10,000 becomes $39,868.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1977
$1.00
$3.99
$5.00
$19.93
$10.00
$39.87
$20.00
$79.74
$50.00
$199
$100
$399
$500
$1,993
$1,000
$3,987
$5,000
$19,934
$10,000
$39,868
$100,000
$398,684
$1,000,000
$3,986,842
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1977
Between 1931 and 1977, food rose the most, up 407.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 257.3%, against 298.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.05%
$399
Food
3.60%
$508
Apparel
2.81%
$357
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 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$399
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $176 by
1953, on its way to $399 in 1977; 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: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $399; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1977: $100 is worth $399 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1977/