$100 in 1938 is worth $1,305 in 2003,
because prices increased 1205.0% over that period, an average of
4.03% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,305
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1205.0%
Average inflation rate
4.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,305
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,205
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1938 → 2003
$1,305
$100 in 2003 → 1938
$7.66
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2003
Between 1938 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1205.0%, which works out to an average of
4.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2003: the 1938 dollar
lost 92.3% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 2003 at the same ratio, 13.05: $1,000 becomes
$13,050, and $10,000 becomes $130,496.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2003
$1.00
$13.05
$5.00
$65.25
$10.00
$130
$20.00
$261
$50.00
$652
$100
$1,305
$500
$6,525
$1,000
$13,050
$5,000
$65,248
$10,000
$130,496
$100,000
$1,304,965
$1,000,000
$13,049,645
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2003
Between 1938 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 2784.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 452.1%, against 1205.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.03%
$1,305
Medical care
5.31%
$2,884
Food
4.24%
$1,488
Transportation
3.73%
$1,079
Apparel
2.66%
$552
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 2003
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 1938–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,305
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $247 by
1968, on its way to $1,305 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,305; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,305 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2003/