$100 in 1938 is worth $171 in 1950,
because prices increased 70.9% over that period, an average of
4.57% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$171
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
70.9%
Average inflation rate
4.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$171
Price difference ($100 base)
$70.92
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1938 → 1950
$171
$100 in 1950 → 1938
$58.51
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1950
Between 1938 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 70.9%, which works out to an average of
4.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1950: the 1938 dollar
lost 41.5% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.71: $1,000 becomes
$1,709, and $10,000 becomes $17,092.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1950
$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, 1938–1950
Between 1938 and 1950, food rose the most, up 109.9%, while medical care rose the least, up 46.6%, against 70.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.57%
$171
Food
6.37%
$210
Apparel
5.21%
$184
Transportation
3.75%
$155
Medical care
3.24%
$147
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 1950
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1950 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1938, at end
1938–1940
-0.36%
-0.7%
$99.29
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $125 by
1944, on its way to $171 in 1950; 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 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $171; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1950: $100 is worth $171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1950/