$100 in 1938 is worth $1,527 in 2008,
because prices increased 1427.0% over that period, an average of
3.97% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,527
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1427.0%
Average inflation rate
3.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,527
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,427
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1938 → 2008
$1,527
$100 in 2008 → 1938
$6.55
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2008
Between 1938 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1427.0%, which works out to an average of
3.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2008: the 1938 dollar
lost 93.5% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2008 at the same ratio, 15.27: $1,000 becomes
$15,270, and $10,000 becomes $152,697.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2008
$1.00
$15.27
$5.00
$76.35
$10.00
$153
$20.00
$305
$50.00
$763
$100
$1,527
$500
$7,635
$1,000
$15,270
$5,000
$76,349
$10,000
$152,697
$100,000
$1,526,972
$1,000,000
$15,269,716
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2008
Between 1938 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 3434.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 443.0%, against 1427.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.97%
$1,527
Medical care
5.23%
$3,535
Food
4.19%
$1,769
Transportation
3.78%
$1,339
Apparel
2.45%
$543
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 2008
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 1938–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$1,527
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $315 by
1973, on its way to $1,527 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,527; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2008: $100 is worth $1,527 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2008/