$100 in 1932 is worth $199 in 1956,
because prices increased 98.5% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$199
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
98.5%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$199
Price difference ($100 base)
$98.54
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1932 → 1956
$199
$100 in 1956 → 1932
$50.37
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1956
Between 1932 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 98.5%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1956: the 1932 dollar
lost 49.6% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.99: $1,000 becomes
$1,985, and $10,000 becomes $19,854.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.99
$5.00
$9.93
$10.00
$19.85
$20.00
$39.71
$50.00
$99.27
$100
$199
$500
$993
$1,000
$1,985
$5,000
$9,927
$10,000
$19,854
$100,000
$198,540
$1,000,000
$1,985,401
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1956
Between 1932 and 1956, food rose the most, up 161.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 124.1%, against 98.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$199
Food
4.09%
$262
Apparel
3.42%
$224
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 1956
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 1932–1956 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
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$199
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $128 by
1944, on its way to $199 in 1956; 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 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $199; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1956: $100 is worth $199 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1956/