$100 in 1934 is worth $1,198 in 1997,
because prices increased 1097.8% over that period, an average of
4.02% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,198
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1097.8%
Average inflation rate
4.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,198
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,098
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1934 → 1997
$1,198
$100 in 1997 → 1934
$8.35
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1997
Between 1934 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1097.8%, which works out to an average of
4.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1997: the 1934 dollar
lost 91.7% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 1997 at the same ratio, 11.98: $1,000 becomes
$11,978, and $10,000 becomes $119,776.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1997
$1.00
$11.98
$5.00
$59.89
$10.00
$120
$20.00
$240
$50.00
$599
$100
$1,198
$500
$5,989
$1,000
$11,978
$5,000
$59,888
$10,000
$119,776
$100,000
$1,197,761
$1,000,000
$11,977,612
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1997
Between 1934 and 1997, food rose the most, up 1256.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 545.1%, against 1097.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.02%
$1,198
Food
4.23%
$1,356
Apparel
3.00%
$645
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 1997
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 1934–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,198
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $231 by
1964, on its way to $1,198 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,198; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,198 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1997/