$100 in 1933 is worth $634 in 1980,
because prices increased 533.8% over that period, an average of
4.01% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$634
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
533.8%
Average inflation rate
4.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$634
Price difference ($100 base)
$534
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1933 → 1980
$634
$100 in 1980 → 1933
$15.78
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1980
Between 1933 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 533.8%, which works out to an average of
4.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1980: the 1933 dollar
lost 84.2% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1980 at the same ratio, 6.34: $1,000 becomes
$6,338, and $10,000 becomes $63,385.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1980
$1.00
$6.34
$5.00
$31.69
$10.00
$63.38
$20.00
$127
$50.00
$317
$100
$634
$500
$3,169
$1,000
$6,338
$5,000
$31,692
$10,000
$63,385
$100,000
$633,846
$1,000,000
$6,338,462
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1980
Between 1933 and 1980, food rose the most, up 734.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 383.5%, against 533.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.01%
$634
Food
4.62%
$835
Apparel
3.41%
$484
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 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$634
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $216 by
1957, on its way to $634 in 1980; 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: 1980
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $634; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1980: $100 is worth $634 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1980/