$100 in 1931 is worth $1,072 in 1998,
because prices increased 972.4% over that period, an average of
3.60% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,072
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
972.4%
Average inflation rate
3.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,072
Price difference ($100 base)
$972
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1931 → 1998
$1,072
$100 in 1998 → 1931
$9.33
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1998
Between 1931 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 972.4%, which works out to an average of
3.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1998: the 1931 dollar
lost 90.7% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 1998 at the same ratio, 10.72: $1,000 becomes
$10,724, and $10,000 becomes $107,237.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1998
$1.00
$10.72
$5.00
$53.62
$10.00
$107
$20.00
$214
$50.00
$536
$100
$1,072
$500
$5,362
$1,000
$10,724
$5,000
$53,618
$10,000
$107,237
$100,000
$1,072,368
$1,000,000
$10,723,684
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1998
Between 1931 and 1998, food rose the most, up 1145.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 504.5%, against 972.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.60%
$1,072
Food
3.84%
$1,246
Apparel
2.72%
$605
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 1998
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 1931–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$1,072
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $213 by
1966, on its way to $1,072 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,072; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1998: $100 is worth $1,072 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1998/