$100 in 1931 is worth $1,557 in 2014,
because prices increased 1457.5% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,557
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1457.5%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,557
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,457
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1931 → 2014
$1,557
$100 in 2014 → 1931
$6.42
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2014
Between 1931 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1457.5%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2014: the 1931 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2014 at the same ratio, 15.57: $1,000 becomes
$15,575, and $10,000 becomes $155,747.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2014
$1.00
$15.57
$5.00
$77.87
$10.00
$156
$20.00
$311
$50.00
$779
$100
$1,557
$500
$7,787
$1,000
$15,575
$5,000
$77,874
$10,000
$155,747
$100,000
$1,557,474
$1,000,000
$15,574,737
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2014
Between 1931 and 2014, food rose the most, up 1781.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 479.6%, against 1457.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$1,557
Food
3.60%
$1,882
Apparel
2.14%
$580
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 2014
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 1931–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,557
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $266 by
1971, on its way to $1,557 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,557; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,557 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2014/