$100 in 1931 is worth $1,435 in 2010,
because prices increased 1334.6% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,435
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1334.6%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,435
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,335
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1931 → 2010
$1,435
$100 in 2010 → 1931
$6.97
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2010
Between 1931 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1334.6%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2010: the 1931 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 2010 at the same ratio, 14.35: $1,000 becomes
$14,346, and $10,000 becomes $143,458.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2010
$1.00
$14.35
$5.00
$71.73
$10.00
$143
$20.00
$287
$50.00
$717
$100
$1,435
$500
$7,173
$1,000
$14,346
$5,000
$71,729
$10,000
$143,458
$100,000
$1,434,579
$1,000,000
$14,345,789
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2010
Between 1931 and 2010, food rose the most, up 1602.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 443.2%, against 1334.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$1,435
Food
3.65%
$1,703
Apparel
2.17%
$543
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 2010
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 1931–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,435
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $266 by
1971, on its way to $1,435 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,435; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,435 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2010/