$100 in 1938 is worth $171 in 1948,
because prices increased 70.9% over that period, an average of
5.51% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$171
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
70.9%
Average inflation rate
5.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$171
Price difference ($100 base)
$70.92
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1938 → 1948
$171
$100 in 1948 → 1938
$58.51
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1948
Between 1938 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 70.9%, which works out to an average of
5.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1948: the 1938 dollar
lost 41.5% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1938 amount converts to 1948 at the same ratio, 1.71: $1,000 becomes
$1,709, and $10,000 becomes $17,092.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.71
$5.00
$8.55
$10.00
$17.09
$20.00
$34.18
$50.00
$85.46
$100
$171
$500
$855
$1,000
$1,709
$5,000
$8,546
$10,000
$17,092
$100,000
$170,922
$1,000,000
$1,709,220
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1948
Between 1938 and 1948, food rose the most, up 115.7%, while medical care rose the least, up 39.8%, against 70.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.51%
$171
Food
7.99%
$216
Apparel
6.85%
$194
Transportation
3.50%
$141
Medical care
3.41%
$140
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1938: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1938 to 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1948 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1938, at end
1938–1940
-0.36%
-0.7%
$99.29
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $123 by
1943, on its way to $171 in 1948; 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 1.4% in 1939, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $171; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1948: $100 is worth $171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1948/