$100 in 1938 is worth $763 in 1985,
because prices increased 663.1% over that period, an average of
4.42% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$763
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
663.1%
Average inflation rate
4.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$763
Price difference ($100 base)
$663
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1938 → 1985
$763
$100 in 1985 → 1938
$13.10
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1985
Between 1938 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 663.1%, which works out to an average of
4.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1985: the 1938 dollar
lost 86.9% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1985 at the same ratio, 7.63: $1,000 becomes
$7,631, and $10,000 becomes $76,312.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1985
$1.00
$7.63
$5.00
$38.16
$10.00
$76.31
$20.00
$153
$50.00
$382
$100
$763
$500
$3,816
$1,000
$7,631
$5,000
$38,156
$10,000
$76,312
$100,000
$763,121
$1,000,000
$7,631,206
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1985
Between 1938 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 1001.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 379.5%, against 663.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.42%
$763
Medical care
5.24%
$1,102
Food
4.72%
$873
Transportation
4.32%
$729
Apparel
3.39%
$479
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 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1985 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
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$763
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $214 by
1962, on its way to $763 in 1985; 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: 1985
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $763; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1985: $100 is worth $763 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1985/