$100 in 1934 is worth $1,047 in 1992,
because prices increased 947.0% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,047
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
947.0%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,047
Price difference ($100 base)
$947
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1934 → 1992
$1,047
$100 in 1992 → 1934
$9.55
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1992
Between 1934 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 947.0%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1992: the 1934 dollar
lost 90.4% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1992 at the same ratio, 10.47: $1,000 becomes
$10,470, and $10,000 becomes $104,701.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1992
$1.00
$10.47
$5.00
$52.35
$10.00
$105
$20.00
$209
$50.00
$524
$100
$1,047
$500
$5,235
$1,000
$10,470
$5,000
$52,351
$10,000
$104,701
$100,000
$1,047,015
$1,000,000
$10,470,149
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1992
Between 1934 and 1992, food rose the most, up 1088.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 540.3%, against 947.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$1,047
Food
4.36%
$1,189
Apparel
3.25%
$640
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 1992
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 1934–1992 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$975
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$1,047
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $225 by
1962, on its way to $1,047 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,047; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1992: $100 is worth $1,047 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1992/