$100 in 1933 is worth $766 in 1983,
because prices increased 666.2% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$766
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
666.2%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$766
Price difference ($100 base)
$666
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1933 → 1983
$766
$100 in 1983 → 1933
$13.05
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1983
Between 1933 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 666.2%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1983: the 1933 dollar
lost 86.9% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1983 at the same ratio, 7.66: $1,000 becomes
$7,662, and $10,000 becomes $76,615.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1983
$1.00
$7.66
$5.00
$38.31
$10.00
$76.62
$20.00
$153
$50.00
$383
$100
$766
$500
$3,831
$1,000
$7,662
$5,000
$38,308
$10,000
$76,615
$100,000
$766,154
$1,000,000
$7,661,538
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1983
Between 1933 and 1983, food rose the most, up 855.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 433.0%, against 666.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$766
Food
4.62%
$956
Apparel
3.40%
$533
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 1983
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 1933–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$766
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $216 by
1957, on its way to $766 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $766; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1983: $100 is worth $766 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1983/