$100 in 1933 is worth $205 in 1953,
because prices increased 105.4% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
105.4%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1933 → 1953
$205
$100 in 1953 → 1933
$48.69
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1953
Between 1933 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 105.4%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1953: the 1933 dollar
lost 51.3% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1953 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,054, and $10,000 becomes $20,538.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1953
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.27
$10.00
$20.54
$20.00
$41.08
$50.00
$103
$100
$205
$500
$1,027
$1,000
$2,054
$5,000
$10,269
$10,000
$20,538
$100,000
$205,385
$1,000,000
$2,053,846
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1953
Between 1933 and 1953, food rose the most, up 172.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 129.3%, against 105.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$205
Food
5.13%
$272
Apparel
4.24%
$229
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 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$205
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $133 by
1943, on its way to $205 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $205; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1953/