$100 in 1933 is worth $257 in 1967,
because prices increased 156.9% over that period, an average of
2.81% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$257
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
156.9%
Average inflation rate
2.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$257
Price difference ($100 base)
$157
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1933 → 1967
$257
$100 in 1967 → 1933
$38.92
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1967
Between 1933 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 156.9%, which works out to an average of
2.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1967: the 1933 dollar
lost 61.1% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1967 at the same ratio, 2.57: $1,000 becomes
$2,569, and $10,000 becomes $25,692.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1967
$1.00
$2.57
$5.00
$12.85
$10.00
$25.69
$20.00
$51.38
$50.00
$128
$100
$257
$500
$1,285
$1,000
$2,569
$5,000
$12,846
$10,000
$25,692
$100,000
$256,923
$1,000,000
$2,569,231
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1967
Between 1933 and 1967, food rose the most, up 227.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.3%, against 156.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.81%
$257
Food
3.55%
$328
Apparel
2.98%
$271
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 1967
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 1933–1967 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
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$257
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $183 by
1949, on its way to $257 in 1967; 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: 1967
In 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $257; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1967: $100 is worth $257 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1967/