$100 in 1938 is worth $1,138 in 1997,
because prices increased 1038.3% over that period, an average of
4.21% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,138
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1038.3%
Average inflation rate
4.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,138
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,038
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1938 → 1997
$1,138
$100 in 1997 → 1938
$8.79
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1997
Between 1938 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1038.3%, which works out to an average of
4.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1997: the 1938 dollar
lost 91.2% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 1997 at the same ratio, 11.38: $1,000 becomes
$11,383, and $10,000 becomes $113,830.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1997
$1.00
$11.38
$5.00
$56.91
$10.00
$114
$20.00
$228
$50.00
$569
$100
$1,138
$500
$5,691
$1,000
$11,383
$5,000
$56,915
$10,000
$113,830
$100,000
$1,138,298
$1,000,000
$11,382,979
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1997
Between 1938 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 2177.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 506.8%, against 1038.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.21%
$1,138
Medical care
5.44%
$2,278
Food
4.44%
$1,300
Transportation
3.96%
$988
Apparel
3.10%
$607
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 1997
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 1938–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,138
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $247 by
1968, on its way to $1,138 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,138; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1997/