$100 in 1933 is worth $200 in 1951,
because prices increased 100.0% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$200
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
100.0%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$200
Price difference ($100 base)
$100
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1933 → 1951
$200
$100 in 1951 → 1933
$50.00
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1951
Between 1933 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 100.0%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1951: the 1933 dollar
lost 50.0% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1951 at the same ratio, 2.00: $1,000 becomes
$2,000, and $10,000 becomes $20,000.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1951
$1.00
$2.00
$5.00
$10.00
$10.00
$20.00
$20.00
$40.00
$50.00
$100
$100
$200
$500
$1,000
$1,000
$2,000
$5,000
$10,000
$10,000
$20,000
$100,000
$200,000
$1,000,000
$2,000,000
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1951
Between 1933 and 1951, food rose the most, up 171.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 133.5%, against 100.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$200
Food
5.70%
$271
Apparel
4.82%
$234
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$200
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $125 by
1942, on its way to $200 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $200; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1951: $100 is worth $200 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1951/