$100 in 1934 is worth $1,171 in 1996,
because prices increased 1070.9% over that period, an average of
4.05% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,171
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1070.9%
Average inflation rate
4.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,171
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,071
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1934 → 1996
$1,171
$100 in 1996 → 1934
$8.54
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1996
Between 1934 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1070.9%, which works out to an average of
4.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1996: the 1934 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1996 at the same ratio, 11.71: $1,000 becomes
$11,709, and $10,000 becomes $117,090.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1996
$1.00
$11.71
$5.00
$58.54
$10.00
$117
$20.00
$234
$50.00
$585
$100
$1,171
$500
$5,854
$1,000
$11,709
$5,000
$58,545
$10,000
$117,090
$100,000
$1,170,896
$1,000,000
$11,708,955
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1996
Between 1934 and 1996, food rose the most, up 1221.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 539.3%, against 1070.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.05%
$1,171
Food
4.25%
$1,322
Apparel
3.04%
$639
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 1996
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 1934–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $231 by
1964, on its way to $1,171 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,171; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1996/