$100 in 1928 is worth $155 in 1952,
because prices increased 55.0% over that period, an average of
1.84% a year.
$100 in 1928 has
the same buying power as
$155
in 1952
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.0%
Average inflation rate
1.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$155
Price difference ($100 base)
$54.97
CPI in 1928
17.1
CPI in 1952
26.5
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
$100 in 1928 → 1952
$155
$100 in 1952 → 1928
$64.53
What happened to prices between 1928 and 1952
Between 1928 and 1952, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 26.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.0%, which works out to an average of
1.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1928 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1952: the 1928 dollar
lost 35.5% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1952 at the same ratio, 1.55: $1,000 becomes
$1,550, and $10,000 becomes $15,497.
Amount in 1928
Value in 1952
$1.00
$1.55
$5.00
$7.75
$10.00
$15.50
$20.00
$30.99
$50.00
$77.49
$100
$155
$500
$775
$1,000
$1,550
$5,000
$7,749
$10,000
$15,497
$100,000
$154,971
$1,000,000
$1,549,708
Inflation by spending category, 1928–1952
Between 1928 and 1952, food rose the most, up 76.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 74.0%, against 55.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1928
spending costs in 1952, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1928 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.84%
$155
Food
2.39%
$176
Apparel
2.33%
$174
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 1952
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1928–1952 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1952
4.86%
10.0%
$155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1928
$100 from 1928 had already become $81.87 by
1940, on its way to $155 in 1952; 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 1952, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1928 had the buying
power of $155; the year's average CPI of 26.5 is the level
behind every 1952 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1928 to 1952: $100 is worth $155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1952/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1928 to 1952. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1952/