$100 in 1931 is worth $478 in 1979,
because prices increased 377.6% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$478
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
377.6%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$478
Price difference ($100 base)
$378
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1931 → 1979
$478
$100 in 1979 → 1931
$20.94
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1979
Between 1931 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 377.6%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1979: the 1931 dollar
lost 79.1% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1979 at the same ratio, 4.78: $1,000 becomes
$4,776, and $10,000 becomes $47,763.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1979
$1.00
$4.78
$5.00
$23.88
$10.00
$47.76
$20.00
$95.53
$50.00
$239
$100
$478
$500
$2,388
$1,000
$4,776
$5,000
$23,882
$10,000
$47,763
$100,000
$477,632
$1,000,000
$4,776,316
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1979
Between 1931 and 1979, food rose the most, up 519.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 285.9%, against 377.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$478
Food
3.87%
$619
Apparel
2.85%
$386
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$478
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $176 by
1955, on its way to $478 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $478; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1979: $100 is worth $478 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1979/