$100 in 1934 is worth $1,627 in 2010,
because prices increased 1527.3% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,627
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1527.3%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,627
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,527
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1934 → 2010
$1,627
$100 in 2010 → 1934
$6.15
What happened to prices between 1934 and 2010
Between 1934 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1527.3%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2010: the 1934 dollar
lost 93.9% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2010 at the same ratio, 16.27: $1,000 becomes
$16,273, and $10,000 becomes $162,728.
Amount in 1934
Value in 2010
$1.00
$16.27
$5.00
$81.36
$10.00
$163
$20.00
$325
$50.00
$814
$100
$1,627
$500
$8,136
$1,000
$16,273
$5,000
$81,364
$10,000
$162,728
$100,000
$1,627,284
$1,000,000
$16,272,836
Inflation by spending category, 1934–2010
Between 1934 and 2010, food rose the most, up 1793.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 480.1%, against 1527.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$1,627
Food
3.95%
$1,893
Apparel
2.34%
$580
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 2010
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 1934–2010 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,285
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,627
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $368 by
1974, on its way to $1,627 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,627; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,627 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2010/