$100 in 1933 is worth $799 in 1984,
because prices increased 699.2% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$799
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
699.2%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$799
Price difference ($100 base)
$699
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1933 → 1984
$799
$100 in 1984 → 1933
$12.51
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1984
Between 1933 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 699.2%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1984: the 1933 dollar
lost 87.5% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1984 at the same ratio, 7.99: $1,000 becomes
$7,992, and $10,000 becomes $79,923.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1984
$1.00
$7.99
$5.00
$39.96
$10.00
$79.92
$20.00
$160
$50.00
$400
$100
$799
$500
$3,996
$1,000
$7,992
$5,000
$39,962
$10,000
$79,923
$100,000
$799,231
$1,000,000
$7,992,308
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1984
Between 1933 and 1984, food rose the most, up 892.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 443.1%, against 699.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$799
Food
4.60%
$992
Apparel
3.37%
$543
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 1984
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 1933–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$799
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $224 by
1959, on its way to $799 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $799; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1984: $100 is worth $799 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1984/