$100 in 1933 is worth $2,344 in 2023,
because prices increased 2243.9% over that period, an average of
3.57% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$2,344
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2243.9%
Average inflation rate
3.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,344
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,244
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1933 → 2023
$2,344
$100 in 2023 → 1933
$4.27
What happened to prices between 1933 and 2023
Between 1933 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2243.9%, which works out to an average of
3.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2023: the 1933 dollar
lost 95.7% of its purchasing power over
these 90 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 2023 at the same ratio, 23.44: $1,000 becomes
$23,439, and $10,000 becomes $234,386.
Amount in 1933
Value in 2023
$1.00
$23.44
$5.00
$117
$10.00
$234
$20.00
$469
$50.00
$1,172
$100
$2,344
$500
$11,719
$1,000
$23,439
$5,000
$117,193
$10,000
$234,386
$100,000
$2,343,862
$1,000,000
$23,438,615
Inflation by spending category, 1933–2023
Between 1933 and 2023, food rose the most, up 3005.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 594.6%, against 2243.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.57%
$2,344
Food
3.89%
$3,105
Apparel
2.18%
$695
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 2023
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 1933–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,991
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$2,344
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $502 by
1978, on its way to $2,344 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $2,344; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 2023: $100 is worth $2,344 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-2023/