$100 in 1932 is worth $163 in 1947,
because prices increased 62.8% over that period, an average of
3.30% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$163
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
62.8%
Average inflation rate
3.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$163
Price difference ($100 base)
$62.77
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1932 → 1947
$163
$100 in 1947 → 1932
$61.43
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1947
Between 1932 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 62.8%, which works out to an average of
3.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1947: the 1932 dollar
lost 38.6% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.63: $1,000 becomes
$1,628, and $10,000 becomes $16,277.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.63
$5.00
$8.14
$10.00
$16.28
$20.00
$32.55
$50.00
$81.39
$100
$163
$500
$814
$1,000
$1,628
$5,000
$8,139
$10,000
$16,277
$100,000
$162,774
$1,000,000
$1,627,737
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1947
Between 1932 and 1947, food rose the most, up 125.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 104.6%, against 62.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.30%
$163
Food
5.56%
$225
Apparel
4.89%
$205
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1947 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1932, at end
1932–1940
0.27%
2.2%
$102
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$163
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $101 by
1939, on its way to $163 in 1947; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 5.1% in 1933, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $163; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1947: $100 is worth $163 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1947/