$100 in 1934 is worth $131 in 1944,
because prices increased 31.3% over that period, an average of
2.76% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$131
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
31.3%
Average inflation rate
2.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$131
Price difference ($100 base)
$31.34
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1934 → 1944
$131
$100 in 1944 → 1934
$76.14
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1944
Between 1934 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 31.3%, which works out to an average of
2.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.76 buys in 1944: the 1934 dollar
lost 23.9% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1944 at the same ratio, 1.31: $1,000 becomes
$1,313, and $10,000 becomes $13,134.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.31
$5.00
$6.57
$10.00
$13.13
$20.00
$26.27
$50.00
$65.67
$100
$131
$500
$657
$1,000
$1,313
$5,000
$6,567
$10,000
$13,134
$100,000
$131,343
$1,000,000
$1,313,433
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1944
Between 1934 and 1944, food rose the most, up 45.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 44.7%, against 31.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.76%
$131
Food
3.83%
$146
Apparel
3.76%
$145
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1934 to 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1944 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$131
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $104 by
1939, on its way to $131 in 1944; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $131; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1944: $100 is worth $131 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1944/