$100 in 1931 is worth $598 in 1981,
because prices increased 498.0% over that period, an average of
3.64% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$598
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
498.0%
Average inflation rate
3.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$598
Price difference ($100 base)
$498
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1931 → 1981
$598
$100 in 1981 → 1931
$16.72
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1981
Between 1931 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 498.0%, which works out to an average of
3.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1981: the 1931 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1981 at the same ratio, 5.98: $1,000 becomes
$5,980, and $10,000 becomes $59,803.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1981
$1.00
$5.98
$5.00
$29.90
$10.00
$59.80
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$299
$100
$598
$500
$2,990
$1,000
$5,980
$5,000
$29,901
$10,000
$59,803
$100,000
$598,026
$1,000,000
$5,980,263
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1981
Between 1931 and 1981, food rose the most, up 625.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 333.2%, against 498.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.64%
$598
Food
4.04%
$726
Apparel
2.98%
$433
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$598
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $176 by
1955, on its way to $598 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $598; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1981: $100 is worth $598 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1981/