$100 in 1934 is worth $216 in 1958,
because prices increased 115.7% over that period, an average of
3.25% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$216
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
115.7%
Average inflation rate
3.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$216
Price difference ($100 base)
$116
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1934 → 1958
$216
$100 in 1958 → 1934
$46.37
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1958
Between 1934 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 115.7%, which works out to an average of
3.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1958: the 1934 dollar
lost 53.6% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1958 at the same ratio, 2.16: $1,000 becomes
$2,157, and $10,000 becomes $21,567.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1958
$1.00
$2.16
$5.00
$10.78
$10.00
$21.57
$20.00
$43.13
$50.00
$108
$100
$216
$500
$1,078
$1,000
$2,157
$5,000
$10,784
$10,000
$21,567
$100,000
$215,672
$1,000,000
$2,156,716
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1958
Between 1934 and 1958, food rose the most, up 160.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 116.5%, against 115.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.25%
$216
Food
4.07%
$260
Apparel
3.27%
$217
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 1958
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 1934–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$216
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $146 by
1946, on its way to $216 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $216; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1958: $100 is worth $216 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1958/