$100 in 1934 is worth $425 in 1976,
because prices increased 324.6% over that period, an average of
3.50% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$425
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
324.6%
Average inflation rate
3.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$425
Price difference ($100 base)
$325
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1934 → 1976
$425
$100 in 1976 → 1934
$23.55
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1976
Between 1934 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 324.6%, which works out to an average of
3.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1976: the 1934 dollar
lost 76.4% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1976 at the same ratio, 4.25: $1,000 becomes
$4,246, and $10,000 becomes $42,463.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1976
$1.00
$4.25
$5.00
$21.23
$10.00
$42.46
$20.00
$84.93
$50.00
$212
$100
$425
$500
$2,123
$1,000
$4,246
$5,000
$21,231
$10,000
$42,463
$100,000
$424,627
$1,000,000
$4,246,269
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1976
Between 1934 and 1976, food rose the most, up 431.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 265.0%, against 324.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.50%
$425
Food
4.06%
$531
Apparel
3.13%
$365
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 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$425
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $201 by
1954, on its way to $425 in 1976; 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: 1976
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $425; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1976: $100 is worth $425 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1976/