$100 in 1934 is worth $2,274 in 2023,
because prices increased 2173.9% over that period, an average of
3.57% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$2,274
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2173.9%
Average inflation rate
3.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,274
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,174
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1934 → 2023
$2,274
$100 in 2023 → 1934
$4.40
What happened to prices between 1934 and 2023
Between 1934 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2173.9%, which works out to an average of
3.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2023: the 1934 dollar
lost 95.6% of its purchasing power over
these 89 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 2023 at the same ratio, 22.74: $1,000 becomes
$22,739, and $10,000 becomes $227,390.
Amount in 1934
Value in 2023
$1.00
$22.74
$5.00
$114
$10.00
$227
$20.00
$455
$50.00
$1,137
$100
$2,274
$500
$11,369
$1,000
$22,739
$5,000
$113,695
$10,000
$227,390
$100,000
$2,273,896
$1,000,000
$22,738,955
Inflation by spending category, 1934–2023
Between 1934 and 2023, food rose the most, up 2684.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 533.9%, against 2173.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.57%
$2,274
Food
3.81%
$2,784
Apparel
2.10%
$634
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 2023
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 1934–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,931
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$2,274
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $542 by
1979, on its way to $2,274 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $2,274; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 2023: $100 is worth $2,274 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-2023/