$100 in 1932 is worth $102 in 1940,
because prices increased 2.2% over that period, an average of
0.27% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$102
in 1940
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2.2%
Average inflation rate
0.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$102
Price difference ($100 base)
$2.19
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1940
14
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
$100 in 1932 → 1940
$102
$100 in 1940 → 1932
$97.86
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1940
Between 1932 and 1940, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 14.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2.2%, which works out to an average of
0.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.98 buys in 1940: the 1932 dollar
lost 2.1% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1940 at the same ratio, 1.02: $1,000 becomes
$1,022, and $10,000 becomes $10,219.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1940
$1.00
$1.02
$5.00
$5.11
$10.00
$10.22
$20.00
$20.44
$50.00
$51.09
$100
$102
$500
$511
$1,000
$1,022
$5,000
$5,109
$10,000
$10,219
$100,000
$102,190
$1,000,000
$1,021,898
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1940
Between 1932 and 1940, food rose the most, up 12.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.8%, against 2.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1940, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.27%
$102
Food
1.44%
$112
Apparel
1.40%
$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 $101 by
1936, on its way to $102 in 1940; 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 1940, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $102; the year's average CPI of 14 is the level
behind every 1940 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1940, snapping 1939’s decline
and marking the first increase since 1937. The gain was modest, and the CPI
still stood 18.1% below its 1929 peak, a reminder of how far
the recovery from the Depression’s trough had left to go even as defense
orders from Britain and France began reaching American factories. War was
already reshaping domestic policy well before it touched American soil.
Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act that September, the
country’s first peacetime draft, requiring men aged 21 to 35 to register and
authorizing the induction of up to 900,000 men a year, more than a year
before Pearl Harbor. That November, Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented
third term, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie after campaigning on
keeping the United States out of the war then consuming Europe and Asia. The
promise would not hold much longer: within two years, wartime demand would
push consumer prices up faster than at any point since the aftermath of
World War I. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the federal minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour, the level set the previous October under
the Fair Labor Standards Act.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1940: $100 is worth $102 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1940/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1940. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1940/