$100 in 1934 is worth $1,106 in 1994,
because prices increased 1006.0% over that period, an average of
4.09% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,106
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1006.0%
Average inflation rate
4.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,106
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,006
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1934 → 1994
$1,106
$100 in 1994 → 1934
$9.04
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1994
Between 1934 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1006.0%, which works out to an average of
4.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1994: the 1934 dollar
lost 91.0% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1994 at the same ratio, 11.06: $1,000 becomes
$11,060, and $10,000 becomes $110,597.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1994
$1.00
$11.06
$5.00
$55.30
$10.00
$111
$20.00
$221
$50.00
$553
$100
$1,106
$500
$5,530
$1,000
$11,060
$5,000
$55,299
$10,000
$110,597
$100,000
$1,105,970
$1,000,000
$11,059,701
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1994
Between 1934 and 1994, food rose the most, up 1144.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 547.6%, against 1006.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.09%
$1,106
Food
4.29%
$1,244
Apparel
3.16%
$648
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 1994
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 1934–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$1,106
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $231 by
1964, on its way to $1,106 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,106; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1994: $100 is worth $1,106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1994/