$100 in 1931 is worth $1,682 in 2019,
because prices increased 1582.0% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,682
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1582.0%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,682
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,582
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1931 → 2019
$1,682
$100 in 2019 → 1931
$5.95
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2019
Between 1931 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1582.0%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2019: the 1931 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 88 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 2019 at the same ratio, 16.82: $1,000 becomes
$16,820, and $10,000 becomes $168,195.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2019
$1.00
$16.82
$5.00
$84.10
$10.00
$168
$20.00
$336
$50.00
$841
$100
$1,682
$500
$8,410
$1,000
$16,820
$5,000
$84,098
$10,000
$168,195
$100,000
$1,681,954
$1,000,000
$16,819,539
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2019
Between 1931 and 2019, food rose the most, up 1902.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 463.9%, against 1582.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$1,682
Food
3.46%
$2,002
Apparel
1.98%
$564
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 2019
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 1931–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,682
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $374 by
1976, on its way to $1,682 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,682; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,682 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2019/