$100 in 1928 is worth $139 in 1949,
because prices increased 39.2% over that period, an average of
1.59% a year.
$100 in 1928 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1949
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.2%
Average inflation rate
1.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.18
CPI in 1928
17.1
CPI in 1949
23.8
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
$100 in 1928 → 1949
$139
$100 in 1949 → 1928
$71.85
What happened to prices between 1928 and 1949
Between 1928 and 1949, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 23.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.2%, which works out to an average of
1.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1928 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1949: the 1928 dollar
lost 28.2% of its purchasing power over
these 21 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the second straight year of mild decline
even as the stock market climbed sharply, a widening gap between asset
prices and the cost of living that later economists pointed to as an early
warning sign. The Federal Reserve tightened policy repeatedly over the year,
raising its discount rate in an effort to slow the flood of borrowed money
pouring into stock purchases without derailing the broader economy, a
balancing act it ultimately failed to manage. Herbert Hoover won the
presidential election that November, defeating Democrat Al Smith on a
platform built around continuing the prosperity of the Coolidge years; few
voters or policymakers anticipated how quickly that prosperity would end.
First-class postage remained at 2 cents, a price that had now held for nine
straight years.
Every 1928 amount converts to 1949 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,392, and $10,000 becomes $13,918.
Amount in 1928
Value in 1949
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.96
$10.00
$13.92
$20.00
$27.84
$50.00
$69.59
$100
$139
$500
$696
$1,000
$1,392
$5,000
$6,959
$10,000
$13,918
$100,000
$139,181
$1,000,000
$1,391,813
Inflation by spending category, 1928–1949
Between 1928 and 1949, apparel rose the most, up 63.2%, while food rose the least, up 53.4%, against 39.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1928
spending costs in 1949, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1928 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.59%
$139
Apparel
2.36%
$163
Food
2.06%
$153
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1928: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1928 to 1949
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.07% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1928–1949 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1928, at end
1928–1930
-1.18%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1949
6.07%
70.0%
$139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1928
$100 from 1928 had already become $82.46 by
1938, on its way to $139 in 1949; 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.
In 1949, prices fell 1.2% and $100 from 1928 had the buying
power of $139; the year's average CPI of 23.8 is the level
behind every 1949 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.2% in 1949, down from 1948’s 8.1%
gain and the first annual decline since 1939, the first real break in a
decade otherwise defined by wartime and postwar inflation. A mild recession
drove the drop: the National Bureau of Economic Research dates a downturn
from November 1948 to October 1949, as businesses worked off inventories
built up during the postwar buying boom and price pressure finally eased.
The Cold War hardened around the same time. On April 4, the United States,
Canada, and ten Western European nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty,
committing to treat an attack on one member as an attack on all and
formalizing the Western alliance against Soviet expansion. That August 29,
the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, ending the American nuclear
monopoly just four years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and setting off an
arms race that would run for decades. Congress closed out the decade’s wage
policy that October, passing the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949 to
raise the federal minimum wage to 75 cents an hour effective the following
January, nearly double the 40 cents that had held since 1945. The decade
closed with consumer prices 140.4% above their 1913 level,
up 70% since 1940 alone even after 1949’s decline.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1928 to 1949: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1949/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1928 to 1949. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1949/