$100 in 1938 is worth $260 in 1969,
because prices increased 160.3% over that period, an average of
3.13% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$260
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
160.3%
Average inflation rate
3.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$260
Price difference ($100 base)
$160
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1938 → 1969
$260
$100 in 1969 → 1938
$38.42
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1969
Between 1938 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 160.3%, which works out to an average of
3.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1969: the 1938 dollar
lost 61.6% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.60: $1,000 becomes
$2,603, and $10,000 becomes $26,028.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.60
$5.00
$13.01
$10.00
$26.03
$20.00
$52.06
$50.00
$130
$100
$260
$500
$1,301
$1,000
$2,603
$5,000
$13,014
$10,000
$26,028
$100,000
$260,284
$1,000,000
$2,602,837
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1969
Between 1938 and 1969, medical care rose the most, up 209.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 144.5%, against 160.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.13%
$260
Medical care
3.71%
$310
Food
3.68%
$307
Apparel
3.12%
$259
Transportation
2.93%
$245
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 1969
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 1938–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$260
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $191 by
1954, on its way to $260 in 1969; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $260; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1969: $100 is worth $260 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1969/