$100 in 1934 is worth $1,137 in 1995,
because prices increased 1037.3% over that period, an average of
4.07% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,137
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1037.3%
Average inflation rate
4.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,137
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,037
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1934 → 1995
$1,137
$100 in 1995 → 1934
$8.79
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1995
Between 1934 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1037.3%, which works out to an average of
4.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1995: the 1934 dollar
lost 91.2% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1995 at the same ratio, 11.37: $1,000 becomes
$11,373, and $10,000 becomes $113,731.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1995
$1.00
$11.37
$5.00
$56.87
$10.00
$114
$20.00
$227
$50.00
$569
$100
$1,137
$500
$5,687
$1,000
$11,373
$5,000
$56,866
$10,000
$113,731
$100,000
$1,137,313
$1,000,000
$11,373,134
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1995
Between 1934 and 1995, food rose the most, up 1179.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 540.8%, against 1037.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.07%
$1,137
Food
4.27%
$1,279
Apparel
3.09%
$641
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 1995
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 1934–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$1,137
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $231 by
1964, on its way to $1,137 in 1995; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,137; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1995: $100 is worth $1,137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1995/