$100 in 1934 is worth $1,767 in 2014,
because prices increased 1666.7% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,767
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1666.7%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,767
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,667
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1934 → 2014
$1,767
$100 in 2014 → 1934
$5.66
What happened to prices between 1934 and 2014
Between 1934 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1666.7%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2014: the 1934 dollar
lost 94.3% of its purchasing power over
these 80 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 2014 at the same ratio, 17.67: $1,000 becomes
$17,667, and $10,000 becomes $176,669.
Amount in 1934
Value in 2014
$1.00
$17.67
$5.00
$88.33
$10.00
$177
$20.00
$353
$50.00
$883
$100
$1,767
$500
$8,833
$1,000
$17,667
$5,000
$88,334
$10,000
$176,669
$100,000
$1,766,687
$1,000,000
$17,666,866
Inflation by spending category, 1934–2014
Between 1934 and 2014, food rose the most, up 1992.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 519.0%, against 1666.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$1,767
Food
3.87%
$2,092
Apparel
2.30%
$619
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 2014
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 1934–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,767
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $368 by
1974, on its way to $1,767 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,767; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,767 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2014/