$100 in 1932 is worth $212 in 1959,
because prices increased 112.4% over that period, an average of
2.83% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$212
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
112.4%
Average inflation rate
2.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$212
Price difference ($100 base)
$112
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1932 → 1959
$212
$100 in 1959 → 1932
$47.08
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1959
Between 1932 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 112.4%, which works out to an average of
2.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1959: the 1932 dollar
lost 52.9% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1959 at the same ratio, 2.12: $1,000 becomes
$2,124, and $10,000 becomes $21,241.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1959
$1.00
$2.12
$5.00
$10.62
$10.00
$21.24
$20.00
$42.48
$50.00
$106
$100
$212
$500
$1,062
$1,000
$2,124
$5,000
$10,620
$10,000
$21,241
$100,000
$212,409
$1,000,000
$2,124,088
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1959
Between 1932 and 1959, food rose the most, up 177.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 130.8%, against 112.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.83%
$212
Food
3.85%
$278
Apparel
3.15%
$231
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 1959
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 1932–1959 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
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$212
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $131 by
1945, on its way to $212 in 1959; 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 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $212; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1959: $100 is worth $212 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1959/