$100 in 1934 is worth $331 in 1973,
because prices increased 231.3% over that period, an average of
3.12% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$331
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
231.3%
Average inflation rate
3.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$331
Price difference ($100 base)
$231
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1934 → 1973
$331
$100 in 1973 → 1934
$30.18
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1973
Between 1934 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 231.3%, which works out to an average of
3.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1973: the 1934 dollar
lost 69.8% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1973 at the same ratio, 3.31: $1,000 becomes
$3,313, and $10,000 becomes $33,134.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1973
$1.00
$3.31
$5.00
$16.57
$10.00
$33.13
$20.00
$66.27
$50.00
$166
$100
$331
$500
$1,657
$1,000
$3,313
$5,000
$16,567
$10,000
$33,134
$100,000
$331,343
$1,000,000
$3,313,433
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1973
Between 1934 and 1973, food rose the most, up 315.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 213.6%, against 231.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.12%
$331
Food
3.72%
$416
Apparel
2.97%
$314
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 1973
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 1934–1973 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$221
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$290
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$331
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $201 by
1954, on its way to $331 in 1973; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $331; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1973: $100 is worth $331 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1973/