$100 in 1938 is worth $230 in 1966,
because prices increased 129.8% over that period, an average of
3.02% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$230
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
129.8%
Average inflation rate
3.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$230
Price difference ($100 base)
$130
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1938 → 1966
$230
$100 in 1966 → 1938
$43.52
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1966
Between 1938 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 129.8%, which works out to an average of
3.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1966: the 1938 dollar
lost 56.5% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1966 at the same ratio, 2.30: $1,000 becomes
$2,298, and $10,000 becomes $22,979.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1966
$1.00
$2.30
$5.00
$11.49
$10.00
$22.98
$20.00
$45.96
$50.00
$115
$100
$230
$500
$1,149
$1,000
$2,298
$5,000
$11,489
$10,000
$22,979
$100,000
$229,787
$1,000,000
$2,297,872
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1966
Between 1938 and 1966, food rose the most, up 179.3%, while transportation rose the least, up 121.2%, against 129.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.02%
$230
Food
3.74%
$279
Medical care
3.40%
$255
Apparel
2.92%
$224
Transportation
2.88%
$221
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 1966
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 1938–1966 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
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$230
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $188 by
1952, on its way to $230 in 1966; 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 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $230; the year's average CPI of 32.4 is the level
behind every 1966 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.9% in 1966, nearly double 1965’s
1.6% as Vietnam War spending kept climbing without an offsetting tax
increase, pushing the economy closer to capacity and prices higher along
with it. Medicare coverage took effect that July 1, extending federal
health insurance to roughly 19 million Americans age 65 and older under
the program signed into law the year before. The Federal Reserve had
already moved to cool the overheating economy, raising its discount rate
the previous December over White House objections; the tightening carried
into 1966 as the first postwar credit crunch, freezing parts of the
housing and municipal bond markets even as inflation kept climbing. Congress widened
the wage floor’s reach that September 23, when the Fair Labor Standards
Amendments of 1966 set a $1.40 minimum wage effective the following
February and extended coverage to roughly 9 million more workers in
retail, hospitals, schools, and other services not previously covered.
Consumer prices finished 1966 227.3% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
$1.25 an hour for the rest of the year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1966: $100 is worth $230 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1966/