$100 in 1931 is worth $1,559 in 2015,
because prices increased 1459.3% over that period, an average of
3.32% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,559
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1459.3%
Average inflation rate
3.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,559
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,459
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1931 → 2015
$1,559
$100 in 2015 → 1931
$6.41
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2015
Between 1931 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1459.3%, which works out to an average of
3.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2015: the 1931 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2015 at the same ratio, 15.59: $1,000 becomes
$15,593, and $10,000 becomes $155,932.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2015
$1.00
$15.59
$5.00
$77.97
$10.00
$156
$20.00
$312
$50.00
$780
$100
$1,559
$500
$7,797
$1,000
$15,593
$5,000
$77,966
$10,000
$155,932
$100,000
$1,559,322
$1,000,000
$15,593,224
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2015
Between 1931 and 2015, food rose the most, up 1816.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 472.3%, against 1459.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.32%
$1,559
Food
3.58%
$1,917
Apparel
2.10%
$572
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 2015
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 1931–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,559
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $266 by
1971, on its way to $1,559 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,559; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,559 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2015/