$100 in 1933 is worth $1,140 in 1994,
because prices increased 1040.0% over that period, an average of
4.07% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$1,140
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1040.0%
Average inflation rate
4.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,140
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,040
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1933 → 1994
$1,140
$100 in 1994 → 1933
$8.77
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1994
Between 1933 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1040.0%, which works out to an average of
4.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1994: the 1933 dollar
lost 91.2% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1994 at the same ratio, 11.40: $1,000 becomes
$11,400, and $10,000 becomes $114,000.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1994
$1.00
$11.40
$5.00
$57.00
$10.00
$114
$20.00
$228
$50.00
$570
$100
$1,140
$500
$5,700
$1,000
$11,400
$5,000
$57,000
$10,000
$114,000
$100,000
$1,140,000
$1,000,000
$11,400,000
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1994
Between 1933 and 1994, food rose the most, up 1287.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 609.6%, against 1040.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.07%
$1,140
Food
4.41%
$1,388
Apparel
3.26%
$710
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 1994
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 1933–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$1,140
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $235 by
1963, on its way to $1,140 in 1994; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $1,140; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1994: $100 is worth $1,140 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1994/