$100 in 1931 is worth $2,064 in 2024,
because prices increased 1963.7% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$2,064
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1963.7%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,064
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,964
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1931 → 2024
$2,064
$100 in 2024 → 1931
$4.85
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2024
Between 1931 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1963.7%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2024: the 1931 dollar
lost 95.2% of its purchasing power over
these 93 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 2024 at the same ratio, 20.64: $1,000 becomes
$20,637, and $10,000 becomes $206,374.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2024
$1.00
$20.64
$5.00
$103
$10.00
$206
$20.00
$413
$50.00
$1,032
$100
$2,064
$500
$10,319
$1,000
$20,637
$5,000
$103,187
$10,000
$206,374
$100,000
$2,063,743
$1,000,000
$20,637,434
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2024
Between 1931 and 2024, food rose the most, up 2460.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 497.7%, against 1963.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$2,064
Food
3.55%
$2,560
Apparel
1.94%
$598
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 2024
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 1931–2024 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
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$2,064
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $374 by
1976, on its way to $2,064 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $2,064; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2024: $100 is worth $2,064 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2024/