$100 in 1933 is worth $1,677 in 2010,
because prices increased 1577.4% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$1,677
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1577.4%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,677
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,577
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1933 → 2010
$1,677
$100 in 2010 → 1933
$5.96
What happened to prices between 1933 and 2010
Between 1933 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1577.4%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2010: the 1933 dollar
lost 94.0% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2010 at the same ratio, 16.77: $1,000 becomes
$16,774, and $10,000 becomes $167,735.
Amount in 1933
Value in 2010
$1.00
$16.77
$5.00
$83.87
$10.00
$168
$20.00
$335
$50.00
$839
$100
$1,677
$500
$8,387
$1,000
$16,774
$5,000
$83,868
$10,000
$167,735
$100,000
$1,677,354
$1,000,000
$16,773,538
Inflation by spending category, 1933–2010
Between 1933 and 2010, food rose the most, up 2011.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 535.7%, against 1577.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$1,677
Food
4.04%
$2,112
Apparel
2.43%
$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 2010
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 1933–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,677
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $342 by
1973, on its way to $1,677 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $1,677; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,677 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-2010/