$100 in 1938 is worth $966 in 1991,
because prices increased 866.0% over that period, an average of
4.37% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$966
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
866.0%
Average inflation rate
4.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$966
Price difference ($100 base)
$866
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1938 → 1991
$966
$100 in 1991 → 1938
$10.35
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1991
Between 1938 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 866.0%, which works out to an average of
4.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1991: the 1938 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1991 at the same ratio, 9.66: $1,000 becomes
$9,660, and $10,000 becomes $96,596.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1991
$1.00
$9.66
$5.00
$48.30
$10.00
$96.60
$20.00
$193
$50.00
$483
$100
$966
$500
$4,830
$1,000
$9,660
$5,000
$48,298
$10,000
$96,596
$100,000
$965,957
$1,000,000
$9,659,574
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1991
Between 1938 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 1618.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 487.7%, against 866.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.37%
$966
Medical care
5.51%
$1,718
Food
4.68%
$1,126
Transportation
4.12%
$848
Apparel
3.40%
$588
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 1991
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 1938–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$927
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$966
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $220 by
1964, on its way to $966 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $966; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1991: $100 is worth $966 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1991/