$100 in 1938 is worth $1,156 in 1998,
because prices increased 1056.0% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,156
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1056.0%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,156
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,056
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1938 → 1998
$1,156
$100 in 1998 → 1938
$8.65
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1998
Between 1938 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1056.0%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1998: the 1938 dollar
lost 91.3% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1998 at the same ratio, 11.56: $1,000 becomes
$11,560, and $10,000 becomes $115,603.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1998
$1.00
$11.56
$5.00
$57.80
$10.00
$116
$20.00
$231
$50.00
$578
$100
$1,156
$500
$5,780
$1,000
$11,560
$5,000
$57,801
$10,000
$115,603
$100,000
$1,156,028
$1,000,000
$11,560,284
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1998
Between 1938 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 2250.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 507.3%, against 1056.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$1,156
Medical care
5.40%
$2,350
Food
4.40%
$1,328
Transportation
3.86%
$970
Apparel
3.05%
$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 1998
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 1938–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$1,156
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $247 by
1968, on its way to $1,156 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,156; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1998: $100 is worth $1,156 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1998/