$100 in 1931 is worth $1,003 in 1995,
because prices increased 902.6% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,003
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
902.6%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,003
Price difference ($100 base)
$903
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1931 → 1995
$1,003
$100 in 1995 → 1931
$9.97
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1995
Between 1931 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 902.6%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1995: the 1931 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 1995 at the same ratio, 10.03: $1,000 becomes
$10,026, and $10,000 becomes $100,263.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1995
$1.00
$10.03
$5.00
$50.13
$10.00
$100
$20.00
$201
$50.00
$501
$100
$1,003
$500
$5,013
$1,000
$10,026
$5,000
$50,132
$10,000
$100,263
$100,000
$1,002,632
$1,000,000
$10,026,316
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1995
Between 1931 and 1995, food rose the most, up 1050.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 500.0%, against 902.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$1,003
Food
3.89%
$1,150
Apparel
2.84%
$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 1995
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 1931–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$1,003
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $197 by
1961, on its way to $1,003 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,003; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1995: $100 is worth $1,003 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1995/