$100 in 1938 is worth $1,546 in 2010,
because prices increased 1446.5% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,546
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1446.5%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,546
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,446
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1938 → 2010
$1,546
$100 in 2010 → 1938
$6.47
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2010
Between 1938 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1446.5%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2010: the 1938 dollar
lost 93.5% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 2010 at the same ratio, 15.46: $1,000 becomes
$15,465, and $10,000 becomes $154,650.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2010
$1.00
$15.46
$5.00
$77.32
$10.00
$155
$20.00
$309
$50.00
$773
$100
$1,546
$500
$7,732
$1,000
$15,465
$5,000
$77,325
$10,000
$154,650
$100,000
$1,546,496
$1,000,000
$15,464,965
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2010
Between 1938 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 3671.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 445.7%, against 1446.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$1,546
Medical care
5.17%
$3,771
Food
4.11%
$1,815
Transportation
3.65%
$1,325
Apparel
2.38%
$546
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 2010
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 1938–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,546
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $315 by
1973, on its way to $1,546 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,546; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,546 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2010/