$100 in 1933 is worth $1,112 in 1993,
because prices increased 1011.5% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$1,112
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1011.5%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,112
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,012
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1933 → 1993
$1,112
$100 in 1993 → 1933
$9.00
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1993
Between 1933 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1011.5%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1993: the 1933 dollar
lost 91.0% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1993 at the same ratio, 11.12: $1,000 becomes
$11,115, and $10,000 becomes $111,154.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1993
$1.00
$11.12
$5.00
$55.58
$10.00
$111
$20.00
$222
$50.00
$556
$100
$1,112
$500
$5,558
$1,000
$11,115
$5,000
$55,577
$10,000
$111,154
$100,000
$1,111,538
$1,000,000
$11,115,385
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1993
Between 1933 and 1993, food rose the most, up 1254.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 611.2%, against 1011.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$1,112
Food
4.44%
$1,355
Apparel
3.32%
$711
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 1993
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 1933–1993 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$1,005
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$1,112
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $235 by
1963, on its way to $1,112 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $1,112; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1993: $100 is worth $1,112 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1993/