$100 in 1934 is worth $180 in 1948,
because prices increased 79.9% over that period, an average of
4.28% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$180
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
79.9%
Average inflation rate
4.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$180
Price difference ($100 base)
$79.85
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1934 → 1948
$180
$100 in 1948 → 1934
$55.60
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1948
Between 1934 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 79.9%, which works out to an average of
4.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1948: the 1934 dollar
lost 44.4% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.80: $1,000 becomes
$1,799, and $10,000 becomes $17,985.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.80
$5.00
$8.99
$10.00
$17.99
$20.00
$35.97
$50.00
$89.93
$100
$180
$500
$899
$1,000
$1,799
$5,000
$8,993
$10,000
$17,985
$100,000
$179,851
$1,000,000
$1,798,507
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1948
Between 1934 and 1948, food rose the most, up 125.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 106.3%, against 79.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.28%
$180
Food
5.96%
$225
Apparel
5.31%
$206
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 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1948 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$180
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $110 by
1941, on its way to $180 in 1948; 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.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $180; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1948: $100 is worth $180 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1948/