$100 in 1934 is worth $1,908 in 2019,
because prices increased 1807.9% over that period, an average of
3.53% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$1,908
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1807.9%
Average inflation rate
3.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,908
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,808
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1934 → 2019
$1,908
$100 in 2019 → 1934
$5.24
What happened to prices between 1934 and 2019
Between 1934 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1807.9%, which works out to an average of
3.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2019: the 1934 dollar
lost 94.8% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 2019 at the same ratio, 19.08: $1,000 becomes
$19,079, and $10,000 becomes $190,789.
Amount in 1934
Value in 2019
$1.00
$19.08
$5.00
$95.39
$10.00
$191
$20.00
$382
$50.00
$954
$100
$1,908
$500
$9,539
$1,000
$19,079
$5,000
$95,394
$10,000
$190,789
$100,000
$1,907,888
$1,000,000
$19,078,881
Inflation by spending category, 1934–2019
Between 1934 and 2019, food rose the most, up 2126.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 502.2%, against 1807.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.53%
$1,908
Food
3.72%
$2,227
Apparel
2.13%
$602
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 2019
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 1934–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,908
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $368 by
1974, on its way to $1,908 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $1,908; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,908 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2019/