$100 in 1938 is worth $382 in 1975,
because prices increased 281.6% over that period, an average of
3.69% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$382
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
281.6%
Average inflation rate
3.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$382
Price difference ($100 base)
$282
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1938 → 1975
$382
$100 in 1975 → 1938
$26.21
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1975
Between 1938 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 281.6%, which works out to an average of
3.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1975: the 1938 dollar
lost 73.8% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.82: $1,000 becomes
$3,816, and $10,000 becomes $38,156.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.82
$5.00
$19.08
$10.00
$38.16
$20.00
$76.31
$50.00
$191
$100
$382
$500
$1,908
$1,000
$3,816
$5,000
$19,078
$10,000
$38,156
$100,000
$381,560
$1,000,000
$3,815,603
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1975
Between 1938 and 1975, food rose the most, up 394.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 231.1%, against 281.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.69%
$382
Food
4.41%
$494
Medical care
4.22%
$461
Transportation
3.39%
$343
Apparel
3.29%
$331
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$382
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $193 by
1956, on its way to $382 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $382; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1975: $100 is worth $382 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1975/