$100 in 1931 is worth $923 in 1992,
because prices increased 823.0% over that period, an average of
3.71% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$923
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
823.0%
Average inflation rate
3.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$923
Price difference ($100 base)
$823
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1931 → 1992
$923
$100 in 1992 → 1931
$10.83
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1992
Between 1931 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 823.0%, which works out to an average of
3.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1992: the 1931 dollar
lost 89.2% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1992 at the same ratio, 9.23: $1,000 becomes
$9,230, and $10,000 becomes $92,303.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1992
$1.00
$9.23
$5.00
$46.15
$10.00
$92.30
$20.00
$185
$50.00
$462
$100
$923
$500
$4,615
$1,000
$9,230
$5,000
$46,151
$10,000
$92,303
$100,000
$923,026
$1,000,000
$9,230,263
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1992
Between 1931 and 1992, food rose the most, up 969.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 499.5%, against 823.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.71%
$923
Food
3.96%
$1,069
Apparel
2.98%
$600
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 1992
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 1931–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$923
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $197 by
1961, on its way to $923 in 1992; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $923; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1992: $100 is worth $923 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1992/