$100 in 1932 is worth $254 in 1968,
because prices increased 154.0% over that period, an average of
2.62% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$254
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
154.0%
Average inflation rate
2.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$254
Price difference ($100 base)
$154
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1932 → 1968
$254
$100 in 1968 → 1932
$39.37
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1968
Between 1932 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 154.0%, which works out to an average of
2.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1968: the 1932 dollar
lost 60.6% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1968 at the same ratio, 2.54: $1,000 becomes
$2,540, and $10,000 becomes $25,401.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1968
$1.00
$2.54
$5.00
$12.70
$10.00
$25.40
$20.00
$50.80
$50.00
$127
$100
$254
$500
$1,270
$1,000
$2,540
$5,000
$12,701
$10,000
$25,401
$100,000
$254,015
$1,000,000
$2,540,146
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1968
Between 1932 and 1968, food rose the most, up 229.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.4%, against 154.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.62%
$254
Food
3.37%
$330
Apparel
2.85%
$275
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 1968
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 1932–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$254
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $176 by
1950, on its way to $254 in 1968; 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: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $254; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1968: $100 is worth $254 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1968/