$100 in 1932 is worth $1,889 in 2020,
because prices increased 1789.1% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$1,889
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1789.1%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,889
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,789
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1932 → 2020
$1,889
$100 in 2020 → 1932
$5.29
What happened to prices between 1932 and 2020
Between 1932 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1789.1%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2020: the 1932 dollar
lost 94.7% of its purchasing power over
these 88 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 2020 at the same ratio, 18.89: $1,000 becomes
$18,891, and $10,000 becomes $188,913.
Amount in 1932
Value in 2020
$1.00
$18.89
$5.00
$94.46
$10.00
$189
$20.00
$378
$50.00
$945
$100
$1,889
$500
$9,446
$1,000
$18,891
$5,000
$94,457
$10,000
$188,913
$100,000
$1,889,131
$1,000,000
$18,891,314
Inflation by spending category, 1932–2020
Between 1932 and 2020, food rose the most, up 2397.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 505.5%, against 1789.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$1,889
Food
3.72%
$2,497
Apparel
2.07%
$606
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 2020
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 1932–2020 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,592
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,889
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $442 by
1977, on its way to $1,889 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1932 had the buying
power of $1,889; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1932 to 2020: $100 is worth $1,889 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-2020/