$100 in 1933 is worth $414 in 1975,
because prices increased 313.8% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$414
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
313.8%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$414
Price difference ($100 base)
$314
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1933 → 1975
$414
$100 in 1975 → 1933
$24.16
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1975
Between 1933 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 313.8%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1975: the 1933 dollar
lost 75.8% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1975 at the same ratio, 4.14: $1,000 becomes
$4,138, and $10,000 becomes $41,385.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1975
$1.00
$4.14
$5.00
$20.69
$10.00
$41.38
$20.00
$82.77
$50.00
$207
$100
$414
$500
$2,069
$1,000
$4,138
$5,000
$20,692
$10,000
$41,385
$100,000
$413,846
$1,000,000
$4,138,462
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1975
Between 1933 and 1975, food rose the most, up 475.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 285.6%, against 313.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$414
Food
4.25%
$575
Apparel
3.27%
$386
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1975 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$298
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$414
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $205 by
1953, on its way to $414 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $414; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1975: $100 is worth $414 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1975/