$100 in 1938 is worth $212 in 1961,
because prices increased 112.1% over that period, an average of
3.32% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$212
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
112.1%
Average inflation rate
3.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$212
Price difference ($100 base)
$112
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1938 → 1961
$212
$100 in 1961 → 1938
$47.16
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1961
Between 1938 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 112.1%, which works out to an average of
3.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1961: the 1938 dollar
lost 52.8% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1961 at the same ratio, 2.12: $1,000 becomes
$2,121, and $10,000 becomes $21,206.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1961
$1.00
$2.12
$5.00
$10.60
$10.00
$21.21
$20.00
$42.41
$50.00
$106
$100
$212
$500
$1,060
$1,000
$2,121
$5,000
$10,603
$10,000
$21,206
$100,000
$212,057
$1,000,000
$2,120,567
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1961
Between 1938 and 1961, food rose the most, up 151.2%, while transportation rose the least, up 106.2%, against 112.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.32%
$212
Food
4.09%
$251
Medical care
3.53%
$222
Apparel
3.29%
$211
Transportation
3.20%
$206
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 1961
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 1938–1961 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$210
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$212
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $169 by
1949, on its way to $212 in 1961; 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 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $212; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1961: $100 is worth $212 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1961/