$100 in 1932 is worth $1,566 in 2009,
because prices increased 1466.0% over that period, an average of
3.64% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$1,566
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1466.0%
Average inflation rate
3.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,566
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,466
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1932 → 2009
$1,566
$100 in 2009 → 1932
$6.39
What happened to prices between 1932 and 2009
Between 1932 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1466.0%, which works out to an average of
3.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2009: the 1932 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2009 at the same ratio, 15.66: $1,000 becomes
$15,660, and $10,000 becomes $156,596.
Amount in 1932
Value in 2009
$1.00
$15.66
$5.00
$78.30
$10.00
$157
$20.00
$313
$50.00
$783
$100
$1,566
$500
$7,830
$1,000
$15,660
$5,000
$78,298
$10,000
$156,596
$100,000
$1,565,964
$1,000,000
$15,659,635
Inflation by spending category, 1932–2009
Between 1932 and 2009, food rose the most, up 1937.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 515.8%, against 1466.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.64%
$1,566
Food
3.99%
$2,037
Apparel
2.39%
$616
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 2009
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 1932–2009 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$954
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,257
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,566
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $305 by
1972, on its way to $1,566 in 2009; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $1,566; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,566 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-2009/