$100 in 1934 is worth $678 in 1981,
because prices increased 578.4% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$678
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
578.4%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$678
Price difference ($100 base)
$578
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1934 → 1981
$678
$100 in 1981 → 1934
$14.74
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1981
Between 1934 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 578.4%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1981: the 1934 dollar
lost 85.3% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1981 at the same ratio, 6.78: $1,000 becomes
$6,784, and $10,000 becomes $67,836.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1981
$1.00
$6.78
$5.00
$33.92
$10.00
$67.84
$20.00
$136
$50.00
$339
$100
$678
$500
$3,392
$1,000
$6,784
$5,000
$33,918
$10,000
$67,836
$100,000
$678,358
$1,000,000
$6,783,582
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1981
Between 1934 and 1981, food rose the most, up 706.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 362.6%, against 578.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$678
Food
4.54%
$807
Apparel
3.31%
$463
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$615
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$678
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $216 by
1958, on its way to $678 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $678; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1981: $100 is worth $678 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1981/