$100 in 1932 is worth $905 in 1989,
because prices increased 805.1% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$905
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
805.1%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$905
Price difference ($100 base)
$805
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1932 → 1989
$905
$100 in 1989 → 1932
$11.05
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1989
Between 1932 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 805.1%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1989: the 1932 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1989 at the same ratio, 9.05: $1,000 becomes
$9,051, and $10,000 becomes $90,511.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1989
$1.00
$9.05
$5.00
$45.26
$10.00
$90.51
$20.00
$181
$50.00
$453
$100
$905
$500
$4,526
$1,000
$9,051
$5,000
$45,255
$10,000
$90,511
$100,000
$905,109
$1,000,000
$9,051,095
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1989
Between 1932 and 1989, food rose the most, up 1069.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 508.2%, against 805.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$905
Food
4.41%
$1,169
Apparel
3.22%
$608
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 1989
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$905
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $216 by
1960, on its way to $905 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $905; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 1989: $100 is worth $905 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1989/