$100 in 1932 is worth $142 in 1946,
because prices increased 42.3% over that period, an average of
2.55% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$142
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
42.3%
Average inflation rate
2.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$142
Price difference ($100 base)
$42.34
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1932 → 1946
$142
$100 in 1946 → 1932
$70.26
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1946
Between 1932 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 42.3%, which works out to an average of
2.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.70 buys in 1946: the 1932 dollar
lost 29.7% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.42: $1,000 becomes
$1,423, and $10,000 becomes $14,234.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.42
$5.00
$7.12
$10.00
$14.23
$20.00
$28.47
$50.00
$71.17
$100
$142
$500
$712
$1,000
$1,423
$5,000
$7,117
$10,000
$14,234
$100,000
$142,336
$1,000,000
$1,423,358
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1946
Between 1932 and 1946, food rose the most, up 85.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 76.4%, against 42.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.55%
$142
Food
4.49%
$185
Apparel
4.14%
$176
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 1946
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.68% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1946 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1932, at end
1932–1940
0.27%
2.2%
$102
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$142
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $101 by
1939, on its way to $142 in 1946; 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 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $142; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1946: $100 is worth $142 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1946/