$100 in 1931 is worth $1,133 in 2000,
because prices increased 1032.9% over that period, an average of
3.58% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,133
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1032.9%
Average inflation rate
3.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,133
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,033
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1931 → 2000
$1,133
$100 in 2000 → 1931
$8.83
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2000
Between 1931 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1032.9%, which works out to an average of
3.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2000: the 1931 dollar
lost 91.2% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2000 at the same ratio, 11.33: $1,000 becomes
$11,329, and $10,000 becomes $113,289.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2000
$1.00
$11.33
$5.00
$56.64
$10.00
$113
$20.00
$227
$50.00
$566
$100
$1,133
$500
$5,664
$1,000
$11,329
$5,000
$56,645
$10,000
$113,289
$100,000
$1,132,895
$1,000,000
$11,328,947
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2000
Between 1931 and 2000, food rose the most, up 1200.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 489.1%, against 1032.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.58%
$1,133
Food
3.79%
$1,301
Apparel
2.60%
$589
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 2000
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 1931–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,133
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $213 by
1966, on its way to $1,133 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,133; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2000: $100 is worth $1,133 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2000/