$100 in 1938 is worth $191 in 1954,
because prices increased 90.8% over that period, an average of
4.12% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$191
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
90.8%
Average inflation rate
4.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$191
Price difference ($100 base)
$90.78
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1938 → 1954
$191
$100 in 1954 → 1938
$52.42
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1954
Between 1938 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 90.8%, which works out to an average of
4.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1954: the 1938 dollar
lost 47.6% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.91: $1,000 becomes
$1,908, and $10,000 becomes $19,078.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.91
$5.00
$9.54
$10.00
$19.08
$20.00
$38.16
$50.00
$95.39
$100
$191
$500
$954
$1,000
$1,908
$5,000
$9,539
$10,000
$19,078
$100,000
$190,780
$1,000,000
$1,907,801
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1954
Between 1938 and 1954, food rose the most, up 133.1%, while medical care rose the least, up 72.8%, against 90.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.12%
$191
Food
5.43%
$233
Apparel
4.32%
$197
Transportation
3.70%
$179
Medical care
3.48%
$173
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 1954
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 1938–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$191
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $138 by
1946, on its way to $191 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $191; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1954: $100 is worth $191 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1954/