$100 in 1938 is worth $205 in 1958,
because prices increased 105.0% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
105.0%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1938 → 1958
$205
$100 in 1958 → 1938
$48.79
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1958
Between 1938 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 105.0%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1958: the 1938 dollar
lost 51.2% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1958 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,050, and $10,000 becomes $20,496.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1958
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.25
$10.00
$20.50
$20.00
$40.99
$50.00
$102
$100
$205
$500
$1,025
$1,000
$2,050
$5,000
$10,248
$10,000
$20,496
$100,000
$204,965
$1,000,000
$2,049,645
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1958
Between 1938 and 1958, food rose the most, up 149.6%, while transportation rose the least, up 95.9%, against 105.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$205
Food
4.68%
$250
Apparel
3.62%
$204
Medical care
3.53%
$200
Transportation
3.42%
$196
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 1958
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 1938–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$205
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $171 by
1948, on its way to $205 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $205; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1958: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1958/