$100 in 1932 is worth $190 in 1951,
because prices increased 89.8% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$190
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
89.8%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$190
Price difference ($100 base)
$89.78
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1932 → 1951
$190
$100 in 1951 → 1932
$52.69
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1951
Between 1932 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 89.8%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1951: the 1932 dollar
lost 47.3% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.90: $1,000 becomes
$1,898, and $10,000 becomes $18,978.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.90
$5.00
$9.49
$10.00
$18.98
$20.00
$37.96
$50.00
$94.89
$100
$190
$500
$949
$1,000
$1,898
$5,000
$9,489
$10,000
$18,978
$100,000
$189,781
$1,000,000
$1,897,810
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1951
Between 1932 and 1951, food rose the most, up 163.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 125.1%, against 89.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$190
Food
5.23%
$264
Apparel
4.36%
$225
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1932, at end
1932–1940
0.27%
2.2%
$102
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$176
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$190
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $107 by
1941, on its way to $190 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $190; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1951: $100 is worth $190 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1951/