$100 in 1933 is worth $1,766 in 2012,
because prices increased 1666.1% over that period, an average of
3.70% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$1,766
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1666.1%
Average inflation rate
3.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,766
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,666
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1933 → 2012
$1,766
$100 in 2012 → 1933
$5.66
What happened to prices between 1933 and 2012
Between 1933 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1666.1%, which works out to an average of
3.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2012: the 1933 dollar
lost 94.3% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 2012 at the same ratio, 17.66: $1,000 becomes
$17,661, and $10,000 becomes $176,611.
Amount in 1933
Value in 2012
$1.00
$17.66
$5.00
$88.31
$10.00
$177
$20.00
$353
$50.00
$883
$100
$1,766
$500
$8,831
$1,000
$17,661
$5,000
$88,305
$10,000
$176,611
$100,000
$1,766,108
$1,000,000
$17,661,077
Inflation by spending category, 1933–2012
Between 1933 and 2012, food rose the most, up 2147.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 571.6%, against 1666.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.70%
$1,766
Food
4.02%
$2,248
Apparel
2.44%
$672
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 2012
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 1933–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,766
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $342 by
1973, on its way to $1,766 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $1,766; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,766 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-2012/