$100 in 1938 is worth $645 in 1981,
because prices increased 544.7% over that period, an average of
4.43% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$645
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
544.7%
Average inflation rate
4.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$645
Price difference ($100 base)
$545
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1938 → 1981
$645
$100 in 1981 → 1938
$15.51
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1981
Between 1938 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 544.7%, which works out to an average of
4.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1981: the 1938 dollar
lost 84.5% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1981 at the same ratio, 6.45: $1,000 becomes
$6,447, and $10,000 becomes $64,468.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1981
$1.00
$6.45
$5.00
$32.23
$10.00
$64.47
$20.00
$129
$50.00
$322
$100
$645
$500
$3,223
$1,000
$6,447
$5,000
$32,234
$10,000
$64,468
$100,000
$644,681
$1,000,000
$6,446,809
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1981
Between 1938 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 704.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 335.2%, against 544.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.43%
$645
Medical care
4.97%
$805
Food
4.87%
$774
Transportation
4.41%
$638
Apparel
3.48%
$435
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$584
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$645
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $210 by
1960, on its way to $645 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $645; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1981: $100 is worth $645 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1981/