$100 in 1933 is worth $699 in 1981,
because prices increased 599.2% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$699
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
599.2%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$699
Price difference ($100 base)
$599
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1933 → 1981
$699
$100 in 1981 → 1933
$14.30
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1981
Between 1933 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 599.2%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1981: the 1933 dollar
lost 85.7% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1981 at the same ratio, 6.99: $1,000 becomes
$6,992, and $10,000 becomes $69,923.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1981
$1.00
$6.99
$5.00
$34.96
$10.00
$69.92
$20.00
$140
$50.00
$350
$100
$699
$500
$3,496
$1,000
$6,992
$5,000
$34,962
$10,000
$69,923
$100,000
$699,231
$1,000,000
$6,992,308
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1981
Between 1933 and 1981, food rose the most, up 800.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 406.9%, against 599.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$699
Food
4.68%
$900
Apparel
3.44%
$507
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$699
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $216 by
1957, on its way to $699 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $699; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1981: $100 is worth $699 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1981/