$100 in 1938 is worth $2,161 in 2023,
because prices increased 2061.0% over that period, an average of
3.68% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$2,161
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2061.0%
Average inflation rate
3.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,161
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,061
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1938 → 2023
$2,161
$100 in 2023 → 1938
$4.63
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2023
Between 1938 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2061.0%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2023: the 1938 dollar
lost 95.4% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 2023 at the same ratio, 21.61: $1,000 becomes
$21,610, and $10,000 becomes $216,101.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2023
$1.00
$21.61
$5.00
$108
$10.00
$216
$20.00
$432
$50.00
$1,081
$100
$2,161
$500
$10,805
$1,000
$21,610
$5,000
$108,050
$10,000
$216,101
$100,000
$2,161,007
$1,000,000
$21,610,071
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2023
Between 1938 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 5230.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 496.3%, against 2061.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$2,161
Medical care
4.79%
$5,331
Food
3.94%
$2,669
Transportation
3.48%
$1,829
Apparel
2.12%
$596
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 2023
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 1938–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,836
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$2,161
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $462 by
1978, on its way to $2,161 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $2,161; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2023: $100 is worth $2,161 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2023/