$100 in 1934 is worth $1,713 in 2012,
because prices increased 1613.4% over that period, an average of
3.71% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,713
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1613.4%
Average inflation rate
3.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,713
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,613
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1934 → 2012
$1,713
$100 in 2012 → 1934
$5.84
What happened to prices between 1934 and 2012
Between 1934 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1613.4%, which works out to an average of
3.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2012: the 1934 dollar
lost 94.2% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2012 at the same ratio, 17.13: $1,000 becomes
$17,134, and $10,000 becomes $171,339.
Amount in 1934
Value in 2012
$1.00
$17.13
$5.00
$85.67
$10.00
$171
$20.00
$343
$50.00
$857
$100
$1,713
$500
$8,567
$1,000
$17,134
$5,000
$85,669
$10,000
$171,339
$100,000
$1,713,388
$1,000,000
$17,133,881
Inflation by spending category, 1934–2012
Between 1934 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1915.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 512.9%, against 1613.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.71%
$1,713
Food
3.93%
$2,015
Apparel
2.35%
$613
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 2012
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 1934–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,713
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $368 by
1974, on its way to $1,713 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,713; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,713 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2012/