$100 in 1931 is worth $747 in 1987,
because prices increased 647.4% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$747
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
647.4%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$747
Price difference ($100 base)
$647
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1931 → 1987
$747
$100 in 1987 → 1931
$13.38
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1987
Between 1931 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 647.4%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1987: the 1931 dollar
lost 86.6% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 1987 at the same ratio, 7.47: $1,000 becomes
$7,474, and $10,000 becomes $74,737.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1987
$1.00
$7.47
$5.00
$37.37
$10.00
$74.74
$20.00
$149
$50.00
$374
$100
$747
$500
$3,737
$1,000
$7,474
$5,000
$37,368
$10,000
$74,737
$100,000
$747,368
$1,000,000
$7,473,684
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1987
Between 1931 and 1987, food rose the most, up 779.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 402.7%, against 647.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$747
Food
3.96%
$880
Apparel
2.93%
$503
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 1987
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 1931–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$747
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $191 by
1959, on its way to $747 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $747; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1987: $100 is worth $747 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1987/