$100 in 1932 is worth $103 in 1938,
because prices increased 2.9% over that period, an average of
0.48% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$103
in 1938
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2.9%
Average inflation rate
0.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$103
Price difference ($100 base)
$2.92
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1938
14.1
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
$100 in 1932 → 1938
$103
$100 in 1938 → 1932
$97.16
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1938
Between 1932 and 1938, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 14.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2.9%, which works out to an average of
0.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.97 buys in 1938: the 1932 dollar
lost 2.8% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
Every 1932 amount converts to 1938 at the same ratio, 1.03: $1,000 becomes
$1,029, and $10,000 becomes $10,292.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1938
$1.00
$1.03
$5.00
$5.15
$10.00
$10.29
$20.00
$20.58
$50.00
$51.46
$100
$103
$500
$515
$1,000
$1,029
$5,000
$5,146
$10,000
$10,292
$100,000
$102,920
$1,000,000
$1,029,197
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1938
Between 1932 and 1938, food rose the most, up 13.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 12.3%, against 2.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1938, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.48%
$103
Food
2.07%
$113
Apparel
1.95%
$112
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1932: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $100 by
1935, on its way to $103 in 1938; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 5.1% in 1933, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1938, prices fell 2.1% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $103; the year's average CPI of 14.1 is the level
behind every 1938 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1938: $100 is worth $103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1938/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1938. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1938/