$100 in 1934 is worth $1,769 in 2015,
because prices increased 1668.8% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,769
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1668.8%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,769
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,669
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1934 → 2015
$1,769
$100 in 2015 → 1934
$5.65
What happened to prices between 1934 and 2015
Between 1934 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1668.8%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2015: the 1934 dollar
lost 94.3% of its purchasing power over
these 81 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 2015 at the same ratio, 17.69: $1,000 becomes
$17,688, and $10,000 becomes $176,878.
Amount in 1934
Value in 2015
$1.00
$17.69
$5.00
$88.44
$10.00
$177
$20.00
$354
$50.00
$884
$100
$1,769
$500
$8,844
$1,000
$17,688
$5,000
$88,439
$10,000
$176,878
$100,000
$1,768,784
$1,000,000
$17,687,836
Inflation by spending category, 1934–2015
Between 1934 and 2015, food rose the most, up 2031.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 511.2%, against 1668.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$1,769
Food
3.85%
$2,131
Apparel
2.26%
$611
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 2015
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 1934–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,769
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $368 by
1974, on its way to $1,769 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,769; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,769 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2015/