$100 in 1934 is worth $743 in 1983,
because prices increased 643.3% over that period, an average of
4.18% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$743
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
643.3%
Average inflation rate
4.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$743
Price difference ($100 base)
$643
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1934 → 1983
$743
$100 in 1983 → 1934
$13.45
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1983
Between 1934 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 643.3%, which works out to an average of
4.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1983: the 1934 dollar
lost 86.5% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1983 at the same ratio, 7.43: $1,000 becomes
$7,433, and $10,000 becomes $74,328.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1983
$1.00
$7.43
$5.00
$37.16
$10.00
$74.33
$20.00
$149
$50.00
$372
$100
$743
$500
$3,716
$1,000
$7,433
$5,000
$37,164
$10,000
$74,328
$100,000
$743,284
$1,000,000
$7,432,836
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1983
Between 1934 and 1983, food rose the most, up 756.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 386.4%, against 643.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.18%
$743
Food
4.48%
$857
Apparel
3.28%
$486
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$743
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $216 by
1958, on its way to $743 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $743; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1983: $100 is worth $743 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1983/