$100 in 1933 is worth $502 in 1978,
because prices increased 401.5% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$502
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
401.5%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$502
Price difference ($100 base)
$402
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1933 → 1978
$502
$100 in 1978 → 1933
$19.94
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1978
Between 1933 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 401.5%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1978: the 1933 dollar
lost 80.1% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1978 at the same ratio, 5.02: $1,000 becomes
$5,015, and $10,000 becomes $50,154.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1978
$1.00
$5.02
$5.00
$25.08
$10.00
$50.15
$20.00
$100
$50.00
$251
$100
$502
$500
$2,508
$1,000
$5,015
$5,000
$25,077
$10,000
$50,154
$100,000
$501,538
$1,000,000
$5,015,385
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1978
Between 1933 and 1978, food rose the most, up 592.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 333.0%, against 401.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$502
Food
4.39%
$692
Apparel
3.31%
$433
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$502
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $206 by
1955, on its way to $502 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $502; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1978: $100 is worth $502 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1978/