$100 in 1933 is worth $113 in 1941,
because prices increased 13.1% over that period, an average of
1.55% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$113
in 1941
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.1%
Average inflation rate
1.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$113
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.08
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1941
14.7
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
$100 in 1933 → 1941
$113
$100 in 1941 → 1933
$88.44
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1941
Between 1933 and 1941, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 14.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.1%, which works out to an average of
1.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.88 buys in 1941: the 1933 dollar
lost 11.6% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1941 at the same ratio, 1.13: $1,000 becomes
$1,131, and $10,000 becomes $11,308.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1941
$1.00
$1.13
$5.00
$5.65
$10.00
$11.31
$20.00
$22.62
$50.00
$56.54
$100
$113
$500
$565
$1,000
$1,131
$5,000
$5,654
$10,000
$11,308
$100,000
$113,077
$1,000,000
$1,130,769
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1941
Between 1933 and 1941, food rose the most, up 26.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 21.3%, against 13.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1941, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.55%
$113
Food
2.93%
$126
Apparel
2.44%
$121
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1941
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.00% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1941 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1941
5.00%
5.0%
$113
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $111 by
1937, on its way to $113 in 1941; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.0% in 1941, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1941, prices rose 5.0% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $113; the year's average CPI of 14.7 is the level
behind every 1941 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1941: $100 is worth $113 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1941/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1941. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1941/