$100 in 1932 is worth $216 in 1960,
because prices increased 116.1% over that period, an average of
2.79% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$216
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
116.1%
Average inflation rate
2.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$216
Price difference ($100 base)
$116
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1932 → 1960
$216
$100 in 1960 → 1932
$46.28
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1960
Between 1932 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 116.1%, which works out to an average of
2.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1960: the 1932 dollar
lost 53.7% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1960 at the same ratio, 2.16: $1,000 becomes
$2,161, and $10,000 becomes $21,606.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1960
$1.00
$2.16
$5.00
$10.80
$10.00
$21.61
$20.00
$43.21
$50.00
$108
$100
$216
$500
$1,080
$1,000
$2,161
$5,000
$10,803
$10,000
$21,606
$100,000
$216,058
$1,000,000
$2,160,584
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1960
Between 1932 and 1960, food rose the most, up 180.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 134.4%, against 116.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.79%
$216
Food
3.75%
$280
Apparel
3.09%
$234
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 1960
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 1932–1960 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$216
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $142 by
1946, on its way to $216 in 1960; 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 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $216; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1960: $100 is worth $216 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1960/