$100 in 1932 is worth $704 in 1982,
because prices increased 604.4% over that period, an average of
3.98% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$704
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
604.4%
Average inflation rate
3.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$704
Price difference ($100 base)
$604
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1932 → 1982
$704
$100 in 1982 → 1932
$14.20
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1982
Between 1932 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 604.4%, which works out to an average of
3.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1982: the 1932 dollar
lost 85.8% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1982 at the same ratio, 7.04: $1,000 becomes
$7,044, and $10,000 becomes $70,438.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1982
$1.00
$7.04
$5.00
$35.22
$10.00
$70.44
$20.00
$141
$50.00
$352
$100
$704
$500
$3,522
$1,000
$7,044
$5,000
$35,219
$10,000
$70,438
$100,000
$704,380
$1,000,000
$7,043,796
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1982
Between 1932 and 1982, food rose the most, up 810.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 401.5%, against 604.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.98%
$704
Food
4.52%
$910
Apparel
3.28%
$502
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1982 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$601
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$704
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $199 by
1956, on its way to $704 in 1982; 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: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $704; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1982: $100 is worth $704 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1982/