$100 in 1931 is worth $1,579 in 2016,
because prices increased 1479.0% over that period, an average of
3.30% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,579
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1479.0%
Average inflation rate
3.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,579
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,479
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1931 → 2016
$1,579
$100 in 2016 → 1931
$6.33
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2016
Between 1931 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1479.0%, which works out to an average of
3.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2016: the 1931 dollar
lost 93.7% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 2016 at the same ratio, 15.79: $1,000 becomes
$15,790, and $10,000 becomes $157,899.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2016
$1.00
$15.79
$5.00
$78.95
$10.00
$158
$20.00
$316
$50.00
$789
$100
$1,579
$500
$7,895
$1,000
$15,790
$5,000
$78,950
$10,000
$157,899
$100,000
$1,578,993
$1,000,000
$15,789,934
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2016
Between 1931 and 2016, food rose the most, up 1821.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 472.9%, against 1479.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.30%
$1,579
Food
3.54%
$1,922
Apparel
2.07%
$573
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 2016
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 1931–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,579
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $266 by
1971, on its way to $1,579 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,579; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,579 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2016/