$100 in 1932 is worth $193 in 1952,
because prices increased 93.4% over that period, an average of
3.35% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$193
in 1952
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
93.4%
Average inflation rate
3.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$193
Price difference ($100 base)
$93.43
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1952
26.5
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
$100 in 1932 → 1952
$193
$100 in 1952 → 1932
$51.70
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1952
Between 1932 and 1952, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 26.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 93.4%, which works out to an average of
3.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1952: the 1932 dollar
lost 48.3% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1952 at the same ratio, 1.93: $1,000 becomes
$1,934, and $10,000 becomes $19,343.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1952
$1.00
$1.93
$5.00
$9.67
$10.00
$19.34
$20.00
$38.69
$50.00
$96.72
$100
$193
$500
$967
$1,000
$1,934
$5,000
$9,672
$10,000
$19,343
$100,000
$193,431
$1,000,000
$1,934,307
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1952
Between 1932 and 1952, food rose the most, up 168.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 123.1%, against 93.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1952, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.35%
$193
Food
5.06%
$268
Apparel
4.09%
$223
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 1952
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1952 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
1950–1952
4.86%
10.0%
$193
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $119 by
1942, on its way to $193 in 1952; 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 1952, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $193; the year's average CPI of 26.5 is the level
behind every 1952 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% 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 1952: $100 is worth $193 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1952/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1952. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1952/