$100 in 1931 is worth $1,613 in 2017,
because prices increased 1512.6% over that period, an average of
3.29% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,613
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1512.6%
Average inflation rate
3.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,613
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,513
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1931 → 2017
$1,613
$100 in 2017 → 1931
$6.20
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2017
Between 1931 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1512.6%, which works out to an average of
3.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2017: the 1931 dollar
lost 93.8% of its purchasing power over
these 86 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 2017 at the same ratio, 16.13: $1,000 becomes
$16,126, and $10,000 becomes $161,263.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2017
$1.00
$16.13
$5.00
$80.63
$10.00
$161
$20.00
$323
$50.00
$806
$100
$1,613
$500
$8,063
$1,000
$16,126
$5,000
$80,632
$10,000
$161,263
$100,000
$1,612,632
$1,000,000
$16,126,316
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2017
Between 1931 and 2017, food rose the most, up 1838.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 471.0%, against 1512.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.29%
$1,613
Food
3.51%
$1,938
Apparel
2.05%
$571
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 2017
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 1931–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,613
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $374 by
1976, on its way to $1,613 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,613; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,613 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2017/