$100 in 1931 is worth $2,005 in 2023,
because prices increased 1904.6% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$2,005
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1904.6%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,005
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,905
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1931 → 2023
$2,005
$100 in 2023 → 1931
$4.99
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2023
Between 1931 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1904.6%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2023: the 1931 dollar
lost 95.0% of its purchasing power over
these 92 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 2023 at the same ratio, 20.05: $1,000 becomes
$20,046, and $10,000 becomes $200,462.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2023
$1.00
$20.05
$5.00
$100
$10.00
$200
$20.00
$401
$50.00
$1,002
$100
$2,005
$500
$10,023
$1,000
$20,046
$5,000
$100,231
$10,000
$200,462
$100,000
$2,004,618
$1,000,000
$20,046,184
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2023
Between 1931 and 2023, food rose the most, up 2403.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 493.5%, against 1904.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$2,005
Food
3.56%
$2,504
Apparel
1.95%
$594
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 2023
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 1931–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,703
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$2,005
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $374 by
1976, on its way to $2,005 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $2,005; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2023: $100 is worth $2,005 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2023/