$100 in 1932 is worth $128 in 1944,
because prices increased 28.5% over that period, an average of
2.11% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$128
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
28.5%
Average inflation rate
2.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$128
Price difference ($100 base)
$28.47
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1932 → 1944
$128
$100 in 1944 → 1932
$77.84
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1944
Between 1932 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 28.5%, which works out to an average of
2.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1944: the 1932 dollar
lost 22.2% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.28: $1,000 becomes
$1,285, and $10,000 becomes $12,847.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.28
$5.00
$6.42
$10.00
$12.85
$20.00
$25.69
$50.00
$64.23
$100
$128
$500
$642
$1,000
$1,285
$5,000
$6,423
$10,000
$12,847
$100,000
$128,467
$1,000,000
$1,284,672
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1944
Between 1932 and 1944, food rose the most, up 57.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 52.8%, against 28.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.11%
$128
Food
3.88%
$158
Apparel
3.60%
$153
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–).
Decade by decade: 1932 to 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1944 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1932, at end
1932–1940
0.27%
2.2%
$102
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$128
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $103 by
1938, on its way to $128 in 1944; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 5.1% in 1933, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $128; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1944: $100 is worth $128 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1944/