$100 in 1931 is worth $778 in 1988,
because prices increased 678.3% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$778
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
678.3%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$778
Price difference ($100 base)
$678
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1931 → 1988
$778
$100 in 1988 → 1931
$12.85
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1988
Between 1931 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 678.3%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1988: the 1931 dollar
lost 87.2% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1988 at the same ratio, 7.78: $1,000 becomes
$7,783, and $10,000 becomes $77,829.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1988
$1.00
$7.78
$5.00
$38.91
$10.00
$77.83
$20.00
$156
$50.00
$389
$100
$778
$500
$3,891
$1,000
$7,783
$5,000
$38,914
$10,000
$77,829
$100,000
$778,289
$1,000,000
$7,782,895
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1988
Between 1931 and 1988, food rose the most, up 816.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 424.5%, against 678.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$778
Food
3.96%
$916
Apparel
2.95%
$525
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 1988
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 1931–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$778
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $191 by
1959, on its way to $778 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $778; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1988: $100 is worth $778 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1988/