$100 in 1931 is worth $1,165 in 2001,
because prices increased 1065.1% over that period, an average of
3.57% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,165
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1065.1%
Average inflation rate
3.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,165
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,065
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1931 → 2001
$1,165
$100 in 2001 → 1931
$8.58
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2001
Between 1931 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1065.1%, which works out to an average of
3.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2001: the 1931 dollar
lost 91.4% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2001 at the same ratio, 11.65: $1,000 becomes
$11,651, and $10,000 becomes $116,513.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2001
$1.00
$11.65
$5.00
$58.26
$10.00
$117
$20.00
$233
$50.00
$583
$100
$1,165
$500
$5,826
$1,000
$11,651
$5,000
$58,257
$10,000
$116,513
$100,000
$1,165,132
$1,000,000
$11,651,316
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2001
Between 1931 and 2001, food rose the most, up 1241.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 478.6%, against 1065.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.57%
$1,165
Food
3.78%
$1,342
Apparel
2.54%
$579
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 2001
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 1931–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$1,165
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $213 by
1966, on its way to $1,165 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,165; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2001: $100 is worth $1,165 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2001/