$100 in 1938 is worth $995 in 1992,
because prices increased 895.0% over that period, an average of
4.35% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$995
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
895.0%
Average inflation rate
4.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$995
Price difference ($100 base)
$895
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1938 → 1992
$995
$100 in 1992 → 1938
$10.05
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1992
Between 1938 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 895.0%, which works out to an average of
4.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1992: the 1938 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 1992 at the same ratio, 9.95: $1,000 becomes
$9,950, and $10,000 becomes $99,504.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1992
$1.00
$9.95
$5.00
$49.75
$10.00
$99.50
$20.00
$199
$50.00
$498
$100
$995
$500
$4,975
$1,000
$9,950
$5,000
$49,752
$10,000
$99,504
$100,000
$995,035
$1,000,000
$9,950,355
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1992
Between 1938 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 1745.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 502.3%, against 895.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.35%
$995
Medical care
5.55%
$1,846
Food
4.61%
$1,140
Transportation
4.08%
$866
Apparel
3.38%
$602
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 1992
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 1938–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$995
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $220 by
1964, on its way to $995 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $995; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1992: $100 is worth $995 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1992/