$100 in 1932 is worth $530 in 1979,
because prices increased 429.9% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$530
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
429.9%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$530
Price difference ($100 base)
$430
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1932 → 1979
$530
$100 in 1979 → 1932
$18.87
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1979
Between 1932 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 429.9%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1979: the 1932 dollar
lost 81.1% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1979 at the same ratio, 5.30: $1,000 becomes
$5,299, and $10,000 becomes $52,993.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1979
$1.00
$5.30
$5.00
$26.50
$10.00
$52.99
$20.00
$106
$50.00
$265
$100
$530
$500
$2,650
$1,000
$5,299
$5,000
$26,496
$10,000
$52,993
$100,000
$529,927
$1,000,000
$5,299,270
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1979
Between 1932 and 1979, food rose the most, up 646.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 335.4%, against 429.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$530
Food
4.37%
$747
Apparel
3.18%
$435
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$530
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $199 by
1956, on its way to $530 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $530; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1979: $100 is worth $530 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1979/