$100 in 1938 is worth $223 in 1965,
because prices increased 123.4% over that period, an average of
3.02% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$223
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
123.4%
Average inflation rate
3.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$223
Price difference ($100 base)
$123
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1938 → 1965
$223
$100 in 1965 → 1938
$44.76
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1965
Between 1938 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 123.4%, which works out to an average of
3.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1965: the 1938 dollar
lost 55.2% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1965 at the same ratio, 2.23: $1,000 becomes
$2,234, and $10,000 becomes $22,340.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1965
$1.00
$2.23
$5.00
$11.17
$10.00
$22.34
$20.00
$44.68
$50.00
$112
$100
$223
$500
$1,117
$1,000
$2,234
$5,000
$11,170
$10,000
$22,340
$100,000
$223,404
$1,000,000
$2,234,043
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1965
Between 1938 and 1965, food rose the most, up 166.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 118.3%, against 123.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.02%
$223
Food
3.69%
$266
Medical care
3.37%
$245
Transportation
2.94%
$218
Apparel
2.93%
$218
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 1965
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 1938–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$223
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $184 by
1951, on its way to $223 in 1965; 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 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $223; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% 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 1965: $100 is worth $223 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1965/