$100 in 1932 is worth $476 in 1978,
because prices increased 375.9% over that period, an average of
3.45% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$476
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
375.9%
Average inflation rate
3.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$476
Price difference ($100 base)
$376
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1932 → 1978
$476
$100 in 1978 → 1932
$21.01
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1978
Between 1932 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 375.9%, which works out to an average of
3.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1978: the 1932 dollar
lost 79.0% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1978 at the same ratio, 4.76: $1,000 becomes
$4,759, and $10,000 becomes $47,591.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1978
$1.00
$4.76
$5.00
$23.80
$10.00
$47.59
$20.00
$95.18
$50.00
$238
$100
$476
$500
$2,380
$1,000
$4,759
$5,000
$23,796
$10,000
$47,591
$100,000
$475,912
$1,000,000
$4,759,124
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1978
Between 1932 and 1978, food rose the most, up 572.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 317.4%, against 375.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.45%
$476
Food
4.23%
$673
Apparel
3.16%
$417
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1978 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$283
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$476
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $196 by
1954, on its way to $476 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $476; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1978: $100 is worth $476 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1978/