$100 in 1938 is worth $220 in 1964,
because prices increased 119.9% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$220
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
119.9%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$220
Price difference ($100 base)
$120
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1938 → 1964
$220
$100 in 1964 → 1938
$45.48
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1964
Between 1938 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 119.9%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1964: the 1938 dollar
lost 54.5% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1964 at the same ratio, 2.20: $1,000 becomes
$2,199, and $10,000 becomes $21,986.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1964
$1.00
$2.20
$5.00
$10.99
$10.00
$21.99
$20.00
$43.97
$50.00
$110
$100
$220
$500
$1,099
$1,000
$2,199
$5,000
$10,993
$10,000
$21,986
$100,000
$219,858
$1,000,000
$2,198,582
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1964
Between 1938 and 1964, food rose the most, up 160.3%, while transportation rose the least, up 115.1%, against 119.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$220
Food
3.75%
$260
Medical care
3.41%
$239
Apparel
3.01%
$216
Transportation
2.99%
$215
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 1964
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 1938–1964 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
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$220
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $184 by
1951, on its way to $220 in 1964; 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 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $220; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1964: $100 is worth $220 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1964/