$100 in 1938 is worth $1,681 in 2015,
because prices increased 1581.0% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,681
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1581.0%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,681
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,581
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1938 → 2015
$1,681
$100 in 2015 → 1938
$5.95
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2015
Between 1938 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1581.0%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2015: the 1938 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2015 at the same ratio, 16.81: $1,000 becomes
$16,810, and $10,000 becomes $168,097.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2015
$1.00
$16.81
$5.00
$84.05
$10.00
$168
$20.00
$336
$50.00
$840
$100
$1,681
$500
$8,405
$1,000
$16,810
$5,000
$84,049
$10,000
$168,097
$100,000
$1,680,972
$1,000,000
$16,809,716
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2015
Between 1938 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 4237.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 474.9%, against 1581.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$1,681
Medical care
5.02%
$4,337
Food
4.00%
$2,043
Transportation
3.45%
$1,363
Apparel
2.30%
$575
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 2015
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 1938–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,681
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $462 by
1978, on its way to $1,681 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,681; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,681 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2015/