$100 in 1933 is worth $206 in 1955,
because prices increased 106.2% over that period, an average of
3.34% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$206
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
106.2%
Average inflation rate
3.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$206
Price difference ($100 base)
$106
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1933 → 1955
$206
$100 in 1955 → 1933
$48.51
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1955
Between 1933 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 106.2%, which works out to an average of
3.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1955: the 1933 dollar
lost 51.5% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1955 at the same ratio, 2.06: $1,000 becomes
$2,062, and $10,000 becomes $20,615.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1955
$1.00
$2.06
$5.00
$10.31
$10.00
$20.62
$20.00
$41.23
$50.00
$103
$100
$206
$500
$1,031
$1,000
$2,062
$5,000
$10,308
$10,000
$20,615
$100,000
$206,154
$1,000,000
$2,061,538
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1955
Between 1933 and 1955, food rose the most, up 167.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 128.2%, against 106.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.34%
$206
Food
4.57%
$267
Apparel
3.82%
$228
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 1955
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 1933–1955 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
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$206
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $135 by
1944, on its way to $206 in 1955; 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 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $206; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1955: $100 is worth $206 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1955/