$100 in 1933 is worth $1,502 in 2005,
because prices increased 1402.3% over that period, an average of
3.84% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$1,502
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1402.3%
Average inflation rate
3.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,502
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,402
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1933 → 2005
$1,502
$100 in 2005 → 1933
$6.66
What happened to prices between 1933 and 2005
Between 1933 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1402.3%, which works out to an average of
3.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2005: the 1933 dollar
lost 93.3% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 2005 at the same ratio, 15.02: $1,000 becomes
$15,023, and $10,000 becomes $150,231.
Amount in 1933
Value in 2005
$1.00
$15.02
$5.00
$75.12
$10.00
$150
$20.00
$300
$50.00
$751
$100
$1,502
$500
$7,512
$1,000
$15,023
$5,000
$75,115
$10,000
$150,231
$100,000
$1,502,308
$1,000,000
$15,023,077
Inflation by spending category, 1933–2005
Between 1933 and 2005, food rose the most, up 1733.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 535.6%, against 1402.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.84%
$1,502
Food
4.12%
$1,834
Apparel
2.60%
$636
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 2005
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 1933–2005 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,325
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,502
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $268 by
1968, on its way to $1,502 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $1,502; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,502 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-2005/