$100 in 1932 is worth $244 in 1967,
because prices increased 143.8% over that period, an average of
2.58% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$244
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
143.8%
Average inflation rate
2.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$244
Price difference ($100 base)
$144
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1932 → 1967
$244
$100 in 1967 → 1932
$41.02
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1967
Between 1932 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 143.8%, which works out to an average of
2.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1967: the 1932 dollar
lost 59.0% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1967 at the same ratio, 2.44: $1,000 becomes
$2,438, and $10,000 becomes $24,380.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1967
$1.00
$2.44
$5.00
$12.19
$10.00
$24.38
$20.00
$48.76
$50.00
$122
$100
$244
$500
$1,219
$1,000
$2,438
$5,000
$12,190
$10,000
$24,380
$100,000
$243,796
$1,000,000
$2,437,956
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1967
Between 1932 and 1967, food rose the most, up 218.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 161.5%, against 143.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.58%
$244
Food
3.37%
$319
Apparel
2.78%
$262
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 1967
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 1932–1967 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
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$244
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $176 by
1950, on its way to $244 in 1967; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1967
In 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $244; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1967: $100 is worth $244 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1967/