$100 in 1938 is worth $777 in 1986,
because prices increased 677.3% over that period, an average of
4.36% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$777
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
677.3%
Average inflation rate
4.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$777
Price difference ($100 base)
$677
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1938 → 1986
$777
$100 in 1986 → 1938
$12.86
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1986
Between 1938 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 677.3%, which works out to an average of
4.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1986: the 1938 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1986 at the same ratio, 7.77: $1,000 becomes
$7,773, and $10,000 becomes $77,730.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1986
$1.00
$7.77
$5.00
$38.87
$10.00
$77.73
$20.00
$155
$50.00
$389
$100
$777
$500
$3,887
$1,000
$7,773
$5,000
$38,865
$10,000
$77,730
$100,000
$777,305
$1,000,000
$7,773,050
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1986
Between 1938 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 1084.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 383.6%, against 677.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.36%
$777
Medical care
5.28%
$1,184
Food
4.69%
$901
Transportation
4.14%
$701
Apparel
3.34%
$484
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 1986
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 1938–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$777
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $214 by
1962, on its way to $777 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $777; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1986: $100 is worth $777 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1986/