$100 in 1931 is worth $1,652 in 2018,
because prices increased 1552.0% over that period, an average of
3.28% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,652
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1552.0%
Average inflation rate
3.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,652
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,552
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1931 → 2018
$1,652
$100 in 2018 → 1931
$6.05
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2018
Between 1931 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1552.0%, which works out to an average of
3.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2018: the 1931 dollar
lost 93.9% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2018 at the same ratio, 16.52: $1,000 becomes
$16,520, and $10,000 becomes $165,202.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2018
$1.00
$16.52
$5.00
$82.60
$10.00
$165
$20.00
$330
$50.00
$826
$100
$1,652
$500
$8,260
$1,000
$16,520
$5,000
$82,601
$10,000
$165,202
$100,000
$1,652,020
$1,000,000
$16,520,197
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2018
Between 1931 and 2018, food rose the most, up 1865.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 471.2%, against 1552.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.28%
$1,652
Food
3.48%
$1,966
Apparel
2.02%
$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 2018
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 1931–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,652
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $374 by
1976, on its way to $1,652 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,652; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,652 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2018/