$100 in 1938 is worth $1,679 in 2014,
because prices increased 1579.0% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,679
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1579.0%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,679
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,579
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1938 → 2014
$1,679
$100 in 2014 → 1938
$5.96
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2014
Between 1938 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1579.0%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2014: the 1938 dollar
lost 94.0% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2014 at the same ratio, 16.79: $1,000 becomes
$16,790, and $10,000 becomes $167,898.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2014
$1.00
$16.79
$5.00
$83.95
$10.00
$168
$20.00
$336
$50.00
$839
$100
$1,679
$500
$8,395
$1,000
$16,790
$5,000
$83,949
$10,000
$167,898
$100,000
$1,678,979
$1,000,000
$16,789,787
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2014
Between 1938 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 4126.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 482.3%, against 1579.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$1,679
Medical care
5.05%
$4,226
Food
4.02%
$2,006
Transportation
3.61%
$1,479
Apparel
2.35%
$582
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 2014
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 1938–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,679
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $462 by
1978, on its way to $1,679 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,679; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,679 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2014/