$100 in 1938 is worth $1,813 in 2019,
because prices increased 1713.2% over that period, an average of
3.64% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$1,813
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1713.2%
Average inflation rate
3.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,813
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,713
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1938 → 2019
$1,813
$100 in 2019 → 1938
$5.52
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2019
Between 1938 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1713.2%, which works out to an average of
3.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2019: the 1938 dollar
lost 94.5% of its purchasing power over
these 81 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 2019 at the same ratio, 18.13: $1,000 becomes
$18,132, and $10,000 becomes $181,317.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2019
$1.00
$18.13
$5.00
$90.66
$10.00
$181
$20.00
$363
$50.00
$907
$100
$1,813
$500
$9,066
$1,000
$18,132
$5,000
$90,659
$10,000
$181,317
$100,000
$1,813,170
$1,000,000
$18,131,702
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2019
Between 1938 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 4739.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 466.4%, against 1713.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.64%
$1,813
Medical care
4.91%
$4,839
Food
3.85%
$2,135
Transportation
3.35%
$1,439
Apparel
2.16%
$566
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 2019
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 1938–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,813
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $462 by
1978, on its way to $1,813 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $1,813; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,813 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2019/