$100 in 1931 is worth $1,096 in 1999,
because prices increased 996.1% over that period, an average of
3.58% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,096
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
996.1%
Average inflation rate
3.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,096
Price difference ($100 base)
$996
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1931 → 1999
$1,096
$100 in 1999 → 1931
$9.12
What happened to prices between 1931 and 1999
Between 1931 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 996.1%, which works out to an average of
3.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1999: the 1931 dollar
lost 90.9% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 1999 at the same ratio, 10.96: $1,000 becomes
$10,961, and $10,000 becomes $109,605.
Amount in 1931
Value in 1999
$1.00
$10.96
$5.00
$54.80
$10.00
$110
$20.00
$219
$50.00
$548
$100
$1,096
$500
$5,480
$1,000
$10,961
$5,000
$54,803
$10,000
$109,605
$100,000
$1,096,053
$1,000,000
$10,960,526
Inflation by spending category, 1931–1999
Between 1931 and 1999, food rose the most, up 1172.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 496.8%, against 996.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.58%
$1,096
Food
3.81%
$1,272
Apparel
2.66%
$597
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 1999
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 1931–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,096
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $213 by
1966, on its way to $1,096 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,096; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,096 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-1999/