$100 in 1938 is worth $287 in 1971,
because prices increased 187.2% over that period, an average of
3.25% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$287
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
187.2%
Average inflation rate
3.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$287
Price difference ($100 base)
$187
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1938 → 1971
$287
$100 in 1971 → 1938
$34.81
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1971
Between 1938 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 187.2%, which works out to an average of
3.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1971: the 1938 dollar
lost 65.2% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.87: $1,000 becomes
$2,872, and $10,000 becomes $28,723.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.87
$5.00
$14.36
$10.00
$28.72
$20.00
$57.45
$50.00
$144
$100
$287
$500
$1,436
$1,000
$2,872
$5,000
$14,362
$10,000
$28,723
$100,000
$287,234
$1,000,000
$2,872,340
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1971
Between 1938 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 250.5%, while transportation rose the least, up 170.5%, against 187.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.25%
$287
Medical care
3.87%
$350
Food
3.72%
$334
Apparel
3.16%
$279
Transportation
3.06%
$271
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 1971
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 1938–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$275
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$287
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $191 by
1954, on its way to $287 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $287; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1971: $100 is worth $287 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1971/