Value of a Dollar in 1930
In 1930 the Great Depression was under way and prices were falling, something that has not happened for a whole decade since.
More optionsYear average → today (August 2026)
A month compares month to month, as BLS’s own calculator does.
Worth in
$1 in 1930 is worth
$20.06in August 2026
Prices rose 1905.9% in between, so $1 of 1930 goods costs $20.06 in August 2026.
The price of $1 of 1930 goods, year by year
- Total inflation
- +1905.9%
- Average a year
- 3.17%
- $1 of cash now buys
- $0.05 of 1930 goods
Official CPI-U data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, through August 2026. These are averages for urban consumers, not advice. Terms
How this works: Method, 6 sources,
How this works
Method
A dollar from 1930 is worth what its goods cost now: the amount × the CPI now ÷ the CPI in 1930. For 1930 the calculator uses BLS’s annual average, the mean of the twelve monthly indexes; pick a month above for a month-to-month figure, which is how BLS’s own CPI Inflation Calculator works. Full method
Sources
Limits
Official CPI-U data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, through August 2026. These are averages for urban consumers, not advice.
Changes
- First version: what a dollar is worth from 1913 to August 2026, your own inflation rate, whether a raise beat inflation, the current rate, the rate by year and 12 year pages.
$1 from 1930, worked out
The CPI-U averaged 16.7 in 1930 and 334.980 in August 2026. Divide the two: 334.980 ÷ 16.7 = 20.059, so $1 of 1930 goods costs $20.06 now. The same factor scales any amount: $100 in 1930 is $2,006 today, a total rise of 1906% or 3.17% a year over 96 years.
Falling prices in the Great Depression
By 1930 the Great Depression had begun and prices were falling. The CPI averaged 16.7, 2.9% below 1929, then fell 9.0% in 1931 and 10.5% in 1932. It bottomed out in 1933 at 12.9: from 1929 to 1933 prices fell 25% in all.
The Federal Reserve’s historians tie the fall to the collapse of the banking system. From the fall of 1930 to the winter of 1933 the money supply fell by nearly 30%, and average prices fell with it. Deflation made debts heavier to carry, cut spending, raised unemployment and pushed banks, firms and families into bankruptcy.
So a 1930 dollar bought more in 1933 than it did in 1930, which is the opposite of how money usually behaves. Prices climbed back slowly after 1933 and did not pass their 1930 average until 1943, in the middle of World War II.
- From 1929 to 1933 the CPI fell 25%, from 17.2 to 12.9. Source: BLS, CPI-U all items (CUUR0000SA0).
- From the fall of 1930 through the winter of 1933 the US money supply fell by nearly 30%, and average prices fell by about the same amount. Source: Federal Reserve History, The Great Depression.
How the value of a dollar is worked out
A dollar from 1930 is worth what its goods cost now: the amount × the CPI now ÷ the CPI in 1930. For 1930 the calculator uses BLS’s annual average, the mean of the twelve monthly indexes; pick a month above for a month-to-month figure, which is how BLS’s own CPI Inflation Calculator works.
The index is the CPI-U, all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted: the series BLS publishes back to 1913. It measures the prices urban consumers pay, so it says what a dollar buys, not what an investment earned.
value now = amount × CPI(August 2026) ÷ CPI(1930)
$1 from 1930 in later years
What $1 of 1930 goods cost in each later year (annual averages), with that year’s inflation; the last row is the latest month.
| Year | CPI-U | $1 from 1930 | Inflation that year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | 16.7 | $1 | −2.9% |
| 1940 | 14.0 | $0.84 | +0.7% |
| 1950 | 24.1 | $1.44 | +1.3% |
| 1960 | 29.6 | $1.77 | +1.7% |
| 1970 | 38.8 | $2.32 | +5.7% |
| 1980 | 82.4 | $4.93 | +13.5% |
| 1990 | 130.7 | $7.83 | +5.4% |
| 2000 | 172.2 | $10.31 | +3.4% |
| 2010 | 218.056 | $13.06 | +1.6% |
| 2020 | 258.811 | $15.50 | +1.2% |
Show all 12 rowsShow fewer
| 2025 | 321.943 | $19.28 | +2.6% |
| August 2026 | 334.980 | $20.06 | +3.4% (12 months) |
Data: BLS, CPI-U all items (CUUR0000SA0) · BLS, CPI-U all items, seasonally adjusted (CUSR0000SA0) · BLS, Consumer Price Index data · BLS, Relative importance of CPI components, December 2025 · BLS, Average hourly earnings, total private (CES0500000003). Inflation calculator
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did prices fall in the 1930s?
Banks failed in waves from 1930 to 1933 and the money supply shrank by nearly 30%. With less money chasing the same goods, prices fell, and the Federal Reserve did too little to stop it.
What did a 1930 dollar buy by 1933?
More than in 1930. Goods that cost $1 in 1930 cost about $0.77 in 1933. That was no comfort for most people: wages and jobs fell too, and debts kept their dollar size.
Has the US had deflation since the 1930s?
Only briefly. Since 1940 the annual average fell in 1949 and 2009 only, and by less than 1% each time.