$100 in 1934 is worth $1,874 in 2018,
because prices increased 1773.9% over that period, an average of
3.55% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,874
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1773.9%
Average inflation rate
3.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,874
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,774
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1934 → 2018
$1,874
$100 in 2018 → 1934
$5.34
What happened to prices between 1934 and 2018
Between 1934 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1773.9%, which works out to an average of
3.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2018: the 1934 dollar
lost 94.7% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2018 at the same ratio, 18.74: $1,000 becomes
$18,739, and $10,000 becomes $187,393.
Amount in 1934
Value in 2018
$1.00
$18.74
$5.00
$93.70
$10.00
$187
$20.00
$375
$50.00
$937
$100
$1,874
$500
$9,370
$1,000
$18,739
$5,000
$93,697
$10,000
$187,393
$100,000
$1,873,933
$1,000,000
$18,739,328
Inflation by spending category, 1934–2018
Between 1934 and 2018, food rose the most, up 2085.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 510.0%, against 1773.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.55%
$1,874
Food
3.74%
$2,186
Apparel
2.18%
$610
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 2018
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 1934–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,874
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $368 by
1974, on its way to $1,874 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,874; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,874 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2018/