$100 in 1938 is worth $1,182 in 1999,
because prices increased 1081.6% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,182
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1081.6%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,182
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,082
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1938 → 1999
$1,182
$100 in 1999 → 1938
$8.46
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1999
Between 1938 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1081.6%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1999: the 1938 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1999 at the same ratio, 11.82: $1,000 becomes
$11,816, and $10,000 becomes $118,156.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1999
$1.00
$11.82
$5.00
$59.08
$10.00
$118
$20.00
$236
$50.00
$591
$100
$1,182
$500
$5,908
$1,000
$11,816
$5,000
$59,078
$10,000
$118,156
$100,000
$1,181,560
$1,000,000
$11,815,603
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1999
Between 1938 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 2333.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 499.5%, against 1081.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$1,182
Medical care
5.37%
$2,433
Food
4.37%
$1,356
Transportation
3.83%
$989
Apparel
2.98%
$600
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 1999
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 1938–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,182
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $247 by
1968, on its way to $1,182 in 1999; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,182; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,182 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1999/