$100 in 1932 is worth $205 in 1957,
because prices increased 105.1% over that period, an average of
2.92% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
105.1%
Average inflation rate
2.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1932 → 1957
$205
$100 in 1957 → 1932
$48.75
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1957
Between 1932 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 105.1%, which works out to an average of
2.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1957: the 1932 dollar
lost 51.2% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1957 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,051, and $10,000 becomes $20,511.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1957
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.26
$10.00
$20.51
$20.00
$41.02
$50.00
$103
$100
$205
$500
$1,026
$1,000
$2,051
$5,000
$10,255
$10,000
$20,511
$100,000
$205,109
$1,000,000
$2,051,095
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1957
Between 1932 and 1957, food rose the most, up 170.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 128.2%, against 105.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.92%
$205
Food
4.05%
$270
Apparel
3.36%
$228
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 1957
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 1932–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$205
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $128 by
1944, on its way to $205 in 1957; 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 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $205; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1957: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1957/