$100 in 1938 is worth $1,628 in 2012,
because prices increased 1528.3% over that period, an average of
3.84% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,628
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1528.3%
Average inflation rate
3.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,628
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,528
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1938 → 2012
$1,628
$100 in 2012 → 1938
$6.14
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2012
Between 1938 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1528.3%, which works out to an average of
3.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2012: the 1938 dollar
lost 93.9% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2012 at the same ratio, 16.28: $1,000 becomes
$16,283, and $10,000 becomes $162,833.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2012
$1.00
$16.28
$5.00
$81.42
$10.00
$163
$20.00
$326
$50.00
$814
$100
$1,628
$500
$8,142
$1,000
$16,283
$5,000
$81,416
$10,000
$162,833
$100,000
$1,628,326
$1,000,000
$16,283,262
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2012
Between 1938 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 3928.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 476.6%, against 1528.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.84%
$1,628
Medical care
5.12%
$4,028
Food
4.08%
$1,932
Transportation
3.72%
$1,489
Apparel
2.40%
$577
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 2012
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 1938–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,628
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $315 by
1973, on its way to $1,628 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,628; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,628 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2012/