$100 in 1932 is worth $195 in 1953,
because prices increased 94.9% over that period, an average of
3.23% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$195
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
94.9%
Average inflation rate
3.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$195
Price difference ($100 base)
$94.89
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1932 → 1953
$195
$100 in 1953 → 1932
$51.31
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1953
Between 1932 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 94.9%, which works out to an average of
3.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1953: the 1932 dollar
lost 48.7% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.95: $1,000 becomes
$1,949, and $10,000 becomes $19,489.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.95
$5.00
$9.74
$10.00
$19.49
$20.00
$38.98
$50.00
$97.45
$100
$195
$500
$974
$1,000
$1,949
$5,000
$9,745
$10,000
$19,489
$100,000
$194,891
$1,000,000
$1,948,905
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1953
Between 1932 and 1953, food rose the most, up 164.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 121.0%, against 94.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.23%
$195
Food
4.74%
$264
Apparel
3.85%
$221
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 1953
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 1932–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$195
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $119 by
1942, on its way to $195 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $195; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $195 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1953/