$100 in 1933 is worth $910 in 1988,
because prices increased 810.0% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$910
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
810.0%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$910
Price difference ($100 base)
$810
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1933 → 1988
$910
$100 in 1988 → 1933
$10.99
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1988
Between 1933 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 810.0%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1988: the 1933 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 1988 at the same ratio, 9.10: $1,000 becomes
$9,100, and $10,000 becomes $91,000.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1988
$1.00
$9.10
$5.00
$45.50
$10.00
$91.00
$20.00
$182
$50.00
$455
$100
$910
$500
$4,550
$1,000
$9,100
$5,000
$45,500
$10,000
$91,000
$100,000
$910,000
$1,000,000
$9,100,000
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1988
Between 1933 and 1988, food rose the most, up 1036.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 513.8%, against 810.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$910
Food
4.52%
$1,137
Apparel
3.35%
$614
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 1988
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 1933–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$910
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $230 by
1961, on its way to $910 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $910; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1988: $100 is worth $910 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1988/