$100 in 1931 is worth $896 in 1991,
because prices increased 796.1% over that period, an average of
3.72% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$896
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
796.1%
Average inflation rate
3.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$896
Price difference ($100 base)
$796
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1931 → 1991
$896
$100 in 1991 → 1931
$11.16
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1991
Between 1931 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 796.1%, which works out to an average of
3.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1991: the 1931 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1991 at the same ratio, 8.96: $1,000 becomes
$8,961, and $10,000 becomes $89,605.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1991
$1.00
$8.96
$5.00
$44.80
$10.00
$89.61
$20.00
$179
$50.00
$448
$100
$896
$500
$4,480
$1,000
$8,961
$5,000
$44,803
$10,000
$89,605
$100,000
$896,053
$1,000,000
$8,960,526
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1991
Between 1931 and 1991, food rose the most, up 956.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 485.0%, against 796.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.72%
$896
Food
4.01%
$1,057
Apparel
2.99%
$585
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 1991
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 1931–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$860
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$896
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $197 by
1961, on its way to $896 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $896; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1991: $100 is worth $896 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1991/