$100 in 1934 is worth $194 in 1951,
because prices increased 94.0% over that period, an average of
3.98% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$194
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
94.0%
Average inflation rate
3.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$194
Price difference ($100 base)
$94.03
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1934 → 1951
$194
$100 in 1951 → 1934
$51.54
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1951
Between 1934 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 94.0%, which works out to an average of
3.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1951: the 1934 dollar
lost 48.5% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.94: $1,000 becomes
$1,940, and $10,000 becomes $19,403.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.94
$5.00
$9.70
$10.00
$19.40
$20.00
$38.81
$50.00
$97.01
$100
$194
$500
$970
$1,000
$1,940
$5,000
$9,701
$10,000
$19,403
$100,000
$194,030
$1,000,000
$1,940,299
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1951
Between 1934 and 1951, food rose the most, up 143.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 113.1%, against 94.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.98%
$194
Food
5.36%
$243
Apparel
4.55%
$213
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1951 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
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$194
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $122 by
1942, on its way to $194 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $194; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1951: $100 is worth $194 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1951/