$100 in 1934 is worth $1,791 in 2016,
because prices increased 1691.1% over that period, an average of
3.58% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,791
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1691.1%
Average inflation rate
3.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,791
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,691
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1934 → 2016
$1,791
$100 in 2016 → 1934
$5.58
What happened to prices between 1934 and 2016
Between 1934 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1691.1%, which works out to an average of
3.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2016: the 1934 dollar
lost 94.4% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 2016 at the same ratio, 17.91: $1,000 becomes
$17,911, and $10,000 becomes $179,110.
Amount in 1934
Value in 2016
$1.00
$17.91
$5.00
$89.55
$10.00
$179
$20.00
$358
$50.00
$896
$100
$1,791
$500
$8,955
$1,000
$17,911
$5,000
$89,555
$10,000
$179,110
$100,000
$1,791,097
$1,000,000
$17,910,970
Inflation by spending category, 1934–2016
Between 1934 and 2016, food rose the most, up 2037.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 511.9%, against 1691.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.58%
$1,791
Food
3.80%
$2,137
Apparel
2.23%
$612
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 2016
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 1934–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,791
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $368 by
1974, on its way to $1,791 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,791; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,791 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2016/