$100 in 1938 is worth $1,113 in 1996,
because prices increased 1012.8% over that period, an average of
4.24% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,113
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1012.8%
Average inflation rate
4.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,113
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,013
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1938 → 1996
$1,113
$100 in 1996 → 1938
$8.99
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1996
Between 1938 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1012.8%, which works out to an average of
4.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1996: the 1938 dollar
lost 91.0% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1996 at the same ratio, 11.13: $1,000 becomes
$11,128, and $10,000 becomes $111,277.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1996
$1.00
$11.13
$5.00
$55.64
$10.00
$111
$20.00
$223
$50.00
$556
$100
$1,113
$500
$5,564
$1,000
$11,128
$5,000
$55,638
$10,000
$111,277
$100,000
$1,112,766
$1,000,000
$11,127,660
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1996
Between 1938 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 2115.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 501.4%, against 1012.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.24%
$1,113
Medical care
5.49%
$2,216
Food
4.48%
$1,267
Transportation
4.01%
$979
Apparel
3.14%
$601
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 1996
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 1938–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,113
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $230 by
1966, on its way to $1,113 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,113; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,113 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1996/