$100 in 1931 is worth $1,184 in 2002,
because prices increased 1083.6% over that period, an average of
3.54% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,184
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1083.6%
Average inflation rate
3.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,184
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,084
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1931 → 2002
$1,184
$100 in 2002 → 1931
$8.45
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2002
Between 1931 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1083.6%, which works out to an average of
3.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2002: the 1931 dollar
lost 91.6% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 2002 at the same ratio, 11.84: $1,000 becomes
$11,836, and $10,000 becomes $118,355.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2002
$1.00
$11.84
$5.00
$59.18
$10.00
$118
$20.00
$237
$50.00
$592
$100
$1,184
$500
$5,918
$1,000
$11,836
$5,000
$59,178
$10,000
$118,355
$100,000
$1,183,553
$1,000,000
$11,835,526
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2002
Between 1931 and 2002, food rose the most, up 1265.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 463.6%, against 1083.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.54%
$1,184
Food
3.75%
$1,366
Apparel
2.47%
$564
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 2002
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 1931–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,184
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $213 by
1966, on its way to $1,184 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,184; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,184 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2002/