$100 in 1932 is worth $131 in 1945,
because prices increased 31.4% over that period, an average of
2.12% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$131
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
31.4%
Average inflation rate
2.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$131
Price difference ($100 base)
$31.39
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1932 → 1945
$131
$100 in 1945 → 1932
$76.11
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1945
Between 1932 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 31.4%, which works out to an average of
2.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.76 buys in 1945: the 1932 dollar
lost 23.9% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.31: $1,000 becomes
$1,314, and $10,000 becomes $13,139.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.31
$5.00
$6.57
$10.00
$13.14
$20.00
$26.28
$50.00
$65.69
$100
$131
$500
$657
$1,000
$1,314
$5,000
$6,569
$10,000
$13,139
$100,000
$131,387
$1,000,000
$1,313,869
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1945
Between 1932 and 1945, food rose the most, up 61.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.0%, against 31.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.12%
$131
Food
3.77%
$162
Apparel
3.73%
$161
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 1945
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.15% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1945 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1932, at end
1932–1940
0.27%
2.2%
$102
1940–1945
5.15%
28.6%
$131
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $103 by
1938, on its way to $131 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $131; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1945: $100 is worth $131 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1945/