$100 in 1933 is worth $216 in 1957,
because prices increased 116.2% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$216
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
116.2%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$216
Price difference ($100 base)
$116
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1933 → 1957
$216
$100 in 1957 → 1933
$46.26
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1957
Between 1933 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 116.2%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1957: the 1933 dollar
lost 53.7% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1957 at the same ratio, 2.16: $1,000 becomes
$2,162, and $10,000 becomes $21,615.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1957
$1.00
$2.16
$5.00
$10.81
$10.00
$21.62
$20.00
$43.23
$50.00
$108
$100
$216
$500
$1,081
$1,000
$2,162
$5,000
$10,808
$10,000
$21,615
$100,000
$216,154
$1,000,000
$2,161,538
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1957
Between 1933 and 1957, food rose the most, up 177.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 136.7%, against 116.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$216
Food
4.35%
$278
Apparel
3.66%
$237
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 1957
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 1933–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$216
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $138 by
1945, on its way to $216 in 1957; 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 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $216; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1957: $100 is worth $216 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1957/