$100 in 1932 is worth $196 in 1955,
because prices increased 95.6% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$196
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
95.6%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$196
Price difference ($100 base)
$95.62
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1932 → 1955
$196
$100 in 1955 → 1932
$51.12
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1955
Between 1932 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 95.6%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1955: the 1932 dollar
lost 48.9% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1955 at the same ratio, 1.96: $1,000 becomes
$1,956, and $10,000 becomes $19,562.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1955
$1.00
$1.96
$5.00
$9.78
$10.00
$19.56
$20.00
$39.12
$50.00
$97.81
$100
$196
$500
$978
$1,000
$1,956
$5,000
$9,781
$10,000
$19,562
$100,000
$195,620
$1,000,000
$1,956,204
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1955
Between 1932 and 1955, food rose the most, up 159.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 120.0%, against 95.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$196
Food
4.24%
$260
Apparel
3.49%
$220
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 1955
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 1932–1955 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
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$196
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $126 by
1943, on its way to $196 in 1955; 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 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $196; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1955: $100 is worth $196 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1955/