$100 in 1932 is worth $176 in 1948,
because prices increased 75.9% over that period, an average of
3.59% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$176
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
75.9%
Average inflation rate
3.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$176
Price difference ($100 base)
$75.91
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1932 → 1948
$176
$100 in 1948 → 1932
$56.85
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1948
Between 1932 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 75.9%, which works out to an average of
3.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1948: the 1932 dollar
lost 43.2% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.76: $1,000 becomes
$1,759, and $10,000 becomes $17,591.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.76
$5.00
$8.80
$10.00
$17.59
$20.00
$35.18
$50.00
$87.96
$100
$176
$500
$880
$1,000
$1,759
$5,000
$8,796
$10,000
$17,591
$100,000
$175,912
$1,000,000
$1,759,124
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1948
Between 1932 and 1948, food rose the most, up 143.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 117.9%, against 75.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.59%
$176
Food
5.73%
$244
Apparel
4.99%
$218
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 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1948 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1932, at end
1932–1940
0.27%
2.2%
$102
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$176
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $102 by
1940, on its way to $176 in 1948; 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 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $176; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1948: $100 is worth $176 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1948/