$100 in 1932 is worth $101 in 1939,
because prices increased 1.5% over that period, an average of
0.21% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1939
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1.5%
Average inflation rate
0.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$1.46
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1939
13.9
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
$100 in 1932 → 1939
$101
$100 in 1939 → 1932
$98.56
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1939
Between 1932 and 1939, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1.5%, which works out to an average of
0.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1939: the 1932 dollar
lost 1.4% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1939 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,015, and $10,000 becomes $10,146.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1939
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.07
$10.00
$10.15
$20.00
$20.29
$50.00
$50.73
$100
$101
$500
$507
$1,000
$1,015
$5,000
$5,073
$10,000
$10,146
$100,000
$101,460
$1,000,000
$1,014,599
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1939
Between 1932 and 1939, apparel rose the most, up 10.8%, while food rose the least, up 10.3%, against 1.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1939, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.21%
$101
Apparel
1.47%
$111
Food
1.41%
$110
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 $101 in 1939; 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 1939, prices fell 1.4% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $101; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1939 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.4% in 1939, closing out a decade in which the CPI
fell in six years and rose in four, leaving prices 18.7% below their
1929 level even after the mid-decade recovery. Measured
against the start of the CPI’s modern record, prices still stood 40.4%
above their 1913 level, a reminder that even a decade defined
by deflation left the cost of living well above where it had been a
generation earlier. The decade’s final months reset the economic picture
entirely. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, and Britain and France
declared war two days later; the United States stayed formally neutral
under the Neutrality Acts, but Allied orders for war materiel began flowing
to American factories almost immediately, a demand shock that would do more
to end the Depression over the next few years than any peacetime relief
program had managed. Domestic policy kept building on the New Deal’s
framework, too: the federal minimum wage rose to 30 cents an hour that
October, the second step in the schedule set by the 1938 Fair Labor
Standards Act. Amid it all, the New York World’s Fair opened April 30 in
Queens, themed “The World of Tomorrow” and drawing tens of millions of
visitors with exhibits on television and other technologies promising a
more prosperous decade than the one just ending. First-class postage held
at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1939: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1939/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1939. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1939/