$100 in 1933 is worth $238 in 1964,
because prices increased 138.5% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$238
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
138.5%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$238
Price difference ($100 base)
$138
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1933 → 1964
$238
$100 in 1964 → 1933
$41.94
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1964
Between 1933 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 138.5%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1964: the 1933 dollar
lost 58.1% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1964 at the same ratio, 2.38: $1,000 becomes
$2,385, and $10,000 becomes $23,846.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1964
$1.00
$2.38
$5.00
$11.92
$10.00
$23.85
$20.00
$47.69
$50.00
$119
$100
$238
$500
$1,192
$1,000
$2,385
$5,000
$11,923
$10,000
$23,846
$100,000
$238,462
$1,000,000
$2,384,615
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1964
Between 1933 and 1964, food rose the most, up 202.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 151.6%, against 138.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$238
Food
3.64%
$303
Apparel
3.02%
$252
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 1964
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 1933–1964 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$238
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $183 by
1949, on its way to $238 in 1964; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1964
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $238; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1964: $100 is worth $238 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1964/