$100 in 1931 is worth $1,056 in 1997,
because prices increased 955.9% over that period, an average of
3.64% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,056
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
955.9%
Average inflation rate
3.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,056
Price difference ($100 base)
$956
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1931 → 1997
$1,056
$100 in 1997 → 1931
$9.47
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1997
Between 1931 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 955.9%, which works out to an average of
3.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1997: the 1931 dollar
lost 90.5% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 1997 at the same ratio, 10.56: $1,000 becomes
$10,559, and $10,000 becomes $105,592.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1997
$1.00
$10.56
$5.00
$52.80
$10.00
$106
$20.00
$211
$50.00
$528
$100
$1,056
$500
$5,280
$1,000
$10,559
$5,000
$52,796
$10,000
$105,592
$100,000
$1,055,921
$1,000,000
$10,559,211
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1997
Between 1931 and 1997, food rose the most, up 1119.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 504.1%, against 955.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.64%
$1,056
Food
3.86%
$1,219
Apparel
2.76%
$604
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 1997
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 1931–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,056
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $213 by
1966, on its way to $1,056 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,056; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,056 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1997/