$100 in 1931 is worth $542 in 1980,
because prices increased 442.1% over that period, an average of
3.51% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$542
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
442.1%
Average inflation rate
3.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$542
Price difference ($100 base)
$442
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1931 → 1980
$542
$100 in 1980 → 1931
$18.45
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1980
Between 1931 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 442.1%, which works out to an average of
3.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1980: the 1931 dollar
lost 81.6% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1980 at the same ratio, 5.42: $1,000 becomes
$5,421, and $10,000 becomes $54,211.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1980
$1.00
$5.42
$5.00
$27.11
$10.00
$54.21
$20.00
$108
$50.00
$271
$100
$542
$500
$2,711
$1,000
$5,421
$5,000
$27,105
$10,000
$54,211
$100,000
$542,105
$1,000,000
$5,421,053
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1980
Between 1931 and 1980, food rose the most, up 572.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 313.2%, against 442.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.51%
$542
Food
3.97%
$673
Apparel
2.94%
$413
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 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$542
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $176 by
1955, on its way to $542 in 1980; 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: 1980
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $542; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1980: $100 is worth $542 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1980/