$100 in 1938 is worth $1,738 in 2017,
because prices increased 1638.4% over that period, an average of
3.68% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,738
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1638.4%
Average inflation rate
3.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,738
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,638
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1938 → 2017
$1,738
$100 in 2017 → 1938
$5.75
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2017
Between 1938 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1638.4%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2017: the 1938 dollar
lost 94.2% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 2017 at the same ratio, 17.38: $1,000 becomes
$17,384, and $10,000 becomes $173,844.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2017
$1.00
$17.38
$5.00
$86.92
$10.00
$174
$20.00
$348
$50.00
$869
$100
$1,738
$500
$8,692
$1,000
$17,384
$5,000
$86,922
$10,000
$173,844
$100,000
$1,738,440
$1,000,000
$17,384,397
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2017
Between 1938 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 4514.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 473.6%, against 1638.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$1,738
Medical care
4.97%
$4,615
Food
3.91%
$2,067
Transportation
3.38%
$1,381
Apparel
2.24%
$574
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 2017
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 1938–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,738
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $462 by
1978, on its way to $1,738 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,738; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,738 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2017/