$100 in 1933 is worth $125 in 1942,
because prices increased 25.4% over that period, an average of
2.55% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$125
in 1942
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
25.4%
Average inflation rate
2.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$125
Price difference ($100 base)
$25.38
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1942
16.3
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
$100 in 1933 → 1942
$125
$100 in 1942 → 1933
$79.75
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1942
Between 1933 and 1942, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 16.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 25.4%, which works out to an average of
2.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.80 buys in 1942: the 1933 dollar
lost 20.2% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1942 at the same ratio, 1.25: $1,000 becomes
$1,254, and $10,000 becomes $12,538.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1942
$1.00
$1.25
$5.00
$6.27
$10.00
$12.54
$20.00
$25.08
$50.00
$62.69
$100
$125
$500
$627
$1,000
$1,254
$5,000
$6,269
$10,000
$12,538
$100,000
$125,385
$1,000,000
$1,253,846
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1942
Between 1933 and 1942, food rose the most, up 48.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 42.0%, against 25.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1942, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.55%
$125
Food
4.46%
$148
Apparel
3.97%
$142
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 1942
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.90% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1942 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1942
7.90%
16.4%
$125
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $111 by
1937, on its way to $125 in 1942; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1942, prices rose 10.9% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $125; the year's average CPI of 16.3 is the level
behind every 1942 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1942: $100 is worth $125 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1942/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1942. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1942/