$100 in 1938 is worth $184 in 1951,
because prices increased 84.4% over that period, an average of
4.82% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$184
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
84.4%
Average inflation rate
4.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$184
Price difference ($100 base)
$84.40
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1938 → 1951
$184
$100 in 1951 → 1938
$54.23
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1951
Between 1938 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 84.4%, which works out to an average of
4.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1951: the 1938 dollar
lost 45.8% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.84: $1,000 becomes
$1,844, and $10,000 becomes $18,440.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.84
$5.00
$9.22
$10.00
$18.44
$20.00
$36.88
$50.00
$92.20
$100
$184
$500
$922
$1,000
$1,844
$5,000
$9,220
$10,000
$18,440
$100,000
$184,397
$1,000,000
$1,843,972
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1951
Between 1938 and 1951, food rose the most, up 133.1%, while medical care rose the least, up 54.4%, against 84.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.82%
$184
Food
6.73%
$233
Apparel
5.50%
$200
Transportation
3.93%
$165
Medical care
3.40%
$154
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1951 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
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$184
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $125 by
1944, on its way to $184 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $184; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1951: $100 is worth $184 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1951/