$100 in 1934 is worth $368 in 1974,
because prices increased 267.9% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$368
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
267.9%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$368
Price difference ($100 base)
$268
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1934 → 1974
$368
$100 in 1974 → 1934
$27.18
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1974
Between 1934 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 267.9%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1974: the 1934 dollar
lost 72.8% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1974 at the same ratio, 3.68: $1,000 becomes
$3,679, and $10,000 becomes $36,791.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1974
$1.00
$3.68
$5.00
$18.40
$10.00
$36.79
$20.00
$73.58
$50.00
$184
$100
$368
$500
$1,840
$1,000
$3,679
$5,000
$18,396
$10,000
$36,791
$100,000
$367,910
$1,000,000
$3,679,104
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1974
Between 1934 and 1974, food rose the most, up 375.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 236.9%, against 267.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$368
Food
3.97%
$475
Apparel
3.08%
$337
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$368
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $201 by
1954, on its way to $368 in 1974; 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: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $368; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1974: $100 is worth $368 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1974/