$100 in 1933 is worth $1,254 in 1998,
because prices increased 1153.8% over that period, an average of
3.97% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$1,254
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1153.8%
Average inflation rate
3.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,254
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,154
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1933 → 1998
$1,254
$100 in 1998 → 1933
$7.98
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1998
Between 1933 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1153.8%, which works out to an average of
3.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1998: the 1933 dollar
lost 92.0% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1998 at the same ratio, 12.54: $1,000 becomes
$12,538, and $10,000 becomes $125,385.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1998
$1.00
$12.54
$5.00
$62.69
$10.00
$125
$20.00
$251
$50.00
$627
$100
$1,254
$500
$6,269
$1,000
$12,538
$5,000
$62,692
$10,000
$125,385
$100,000
$1,253,846
$1,000,000
$12,538,462
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1998
Between 1933 and 1998, food rose the most, up 1445.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 607.4%, against 1153.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.97%
$1,254
Food
4.30%
$1,545
Apparel
3.06%
$707
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 1998
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 1933–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$1,254
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $235 by
1963, on its way to $1,254 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $1,254; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1998: $100 is worth $1,254 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1998/