$100 in 1938 is worth $515 in 1979,
because prices increased 414.9% over that period, an average of
4.08% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$515
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
414.9%
Average inflation rate
4.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$515
Price difference ($100 base)
$415
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1938 → 1979
$515
$100 in 1979 → 1938
$19.42
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1979
Between 1938 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 414.9%, which works out to an average of
4.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1979: the 1938 dollar
lost 80.6% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1979 at the same ratio, 5.15: $1,000 becomes
$5,149, and $10,000 becomes $51,489.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1979
$1.00
$5.15
$5.00
$25.74
$10.00
$51.49
$20.00
$103
$50.00
$257
$100
$515
$500
$2,574
$1,000
$5,149
$5,000
$25,745
$10,000
$51,489
$100,000
$514,894
$1,000,000
$5,148,936
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1979
Between 1938 and 1979, food rose the most, up 560.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 287.7%, against 414.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.08%
$515
Food
4.71%
$660
Medical care
4.69%
$655
Transportation
3.92%
$483
Apparel
3.36%
$388
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$515
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $205 by
1958, on its way to $515 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $515; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1979: $100 is worth $515 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1979/