$100 in 1938 is worth $1,276 in 2002,
because prices increased 1175.9% over that period, an average of
4.06% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,276
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1175.9%
Average inflation rate
4.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,276
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,176
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1938 → 2002
$1,276
$100 in 2002 → 1938
$7.84
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2002
Between 1938 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1175.9%, which works out to an average of
4.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2002: the 1938 dollar
lost 92.2% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2002 at the same ratio, 12.76: $1,000 becomes
$12,759, and $10,000 becomes $127,589.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2002
$1.00
$12.76
$5.00
$63.79
$10.00
$128
$20.00
$255
$50.00
$638
$100
$1,276
$500
$6,379
$1,000
$12,759
$5,000
$63,794
$10,000
$127,589
$100,000
$1,275,887
$1,000,000
$12,758,865
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2002
Between 1938 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 2672.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 466.2%, against 1175.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.06%
$1,276
Medical care
5.33%
$2,773
Food
4.27%
$1,456
Transportation
3.74%
$1,047
Apparel
2.75%
$566
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 2002
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 1938–2002 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,221
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,276
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $247 by
1968, on its way to $1,276 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,276; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,276 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2002/