$100 in 1934 is worth $180 in 1950,
because prices increased 79.9% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$180
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
79.9%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$180
Price difference ($100 base)
$79.85
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1934 → 1950
$180
$100 in 1950 → 1934
$55.60
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1950
Between 1934 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 79.9%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1950: the 1934 dollar
lost 44.4% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.80: $1,000 becomes
$1,799, and $10,000 becomes $17,985.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1950
$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, 1934–1950
Between 1934 and 1950, food rose the most, up 119.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 95.6%, against 79.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$180
Food
5.02%
$219
Apparel
4.28%
$196
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 1950
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1950 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$180
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $122 by
1942, on its way to $180 in 1950; 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 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $180; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1950: $100 is worth $180 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1950/