$100 in 1938 is worth $1,702 in 2016,
because prices increased 1602.2% over that period, an average of
3.70% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,702
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1602.2%
Average inflation rate
3.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,702
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,602
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1938 → 2016
$1,702
$100 in 2016 → 1938
$5.87
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2016
Between 1938 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1602.2%, which works out to an average of
3.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2016: the 1938 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2016 at the same ratio, 17.02: $1,000 becomes
$17,022, and $10,000 becomes $170,218.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2016
$1.00
$17.02
$5.00
$85.11
$10.00
$170
$20.00
$340
$50.00
$851
$100
$1,702
$500
$8,511
$1,000
$17,022
$5,000
$85,109
$10,000
$170,218
$100,000
$1,702,177
$1,000,000
$17,021,773
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2016
Between 1938 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 4401.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 475.5%, against 1602.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.70%
$1,702
Medical care
5.00%
$4,502
Food
3.95%
$2,049
Transportation
3.38%
$1,335
Apparel
2.27%
$576
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 2016
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 1938–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,702
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $462 by
1978, on its way to $1,702 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,702; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,702 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2016/