$100 in 1933 is worth $1,282 in 1999,
because prices increased 1181.5% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$1,282
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1181.5%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,282
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,182
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1933 → 1999
$1,282
$100 in 1999 → 1933
$7.80
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1999
Between 1933 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1181.5%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1999: the 1933 dollar
lost 92.2% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 1999 at the same ratio, 12.82: $1,000 becomes
$12,815, and $10,000 becomes $128,154.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1999
$1.00
$12.82
$5.00
$64.08
$10.00
$128
$20.00
$256
$50.00
$641
$100
$1,282
$500
$6,408
$1,000
$12,815
$5,000
$64,077
$10,000
$128,154
$100,000
$1,281,538
$1,000,000
$12,815,385
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1999
Between 1933 and 1999, food rose the most, up 1477.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 598.4%, against 1181.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$1,282
Food
4.27%
$1,578
Apparel
2.99%
$698
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 1999
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 1933–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,282
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $268 by
1968, on its way to $1,282 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $1,282; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,282 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1999/