$100 in 1933 is worth $172 in 1947,
because prices increased 71.5% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$172
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
71.5%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$172
Price difference ($100 base)
$71.54
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1933 → 1947
$172
$100 in 1947 → 1933
$58.30
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1947
Between 1933 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 71.5%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1947: the 1933 dollar
lost 41.7% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.72: $1,000 becomes
$1,715, and $10,000 becomes $17,154.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.72
$5.00
$8.58
$10.00
$17.15
$20.00
$34.31
$50.00
$85.77
$100
$172
$500
$858
$1,000
$1,715
$5,000
$8,577
$10,000
$17,154
$100,000
$171,538
$1,000,000
$1,715,385
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1947
Between 1933 and 1947, food rose the most, up 131.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 112.2%, against 71.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$172
Food
6.19%
$232
Apparel
5.52%
$212
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1947 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$172
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $108 by
1940, on its way to $172 in 1947; 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 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $172; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1947: $100 is worth $172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1947/