$100 in 1931 is worth $1,032 in 1996,
because prices increased 932.2% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,032
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
932.2%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,032
Price difference ($100 base)
$932
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1931 → 1996
$1,032
$100 in 1996 → 1931
$9.69
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1996
Between 1931 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 932.2%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1996: the 1931 dollar
lost 90.3% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1996 at the same ratio, 10.32: $1,000 becomes
$10,322, and $10,000 becomes $103,224.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1996
$1.00
$10.32
$5.00
$51.61
$10.00
$103
$20.00
$206
$50.00
$516
$100
$1,032
$500
$5,161
$1,000
$10,322
$5,000
$51,612
$10,000
$103,224
$100,000
$1,032,237
$1,000,000
$10,322,368
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1996
Between 1931 and 1996, food rose the most, up 1088.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 498.6%, against 932.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$1,032
Food
3.88%
$1,188
Apparel
2.79%
$599
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 1996
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 1931–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,032
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $197 by
1961, on its way to $1,032 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,032; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,032 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1996/