$100 in 1938 is worth $2,283 in 2025,
because prices increased 2183.3% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$2,283
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2183.3%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,283
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,183
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1938 → 2025
$2,283
$100 in 2025 → 1938
$4.38
What happened to prices between 1938 and 2025
Between 1938 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2183.3%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2025: the 1938 dollar
lost 95.6% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2025 at the same ratio, 22.83: $1,000 becomes
$22,833, and $10,000 becomes $228,328.
Amount in 1938
Value in 2025
$1.00
$22.83
$5.00
$114
$10.00
$228
$20.00
$457
$50.00
$1,142
$100
$2,283
$500
$11,416
$1,000
$22,833
$5,000
$114,164
$10,000
$228,328
$100,000
$2,283,284
$1,000,000
$22,832,837
Inflation by spending category, 1938–2025
Between 1938 and 2025, medical care rose the most, up 5532.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 499.6%, against 2183.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$2,283
Medical care
4.74%
$5,632
Food
3.91%
$2,806
Transportation
3.42%
$1,864
Apparel
2.08%
$600
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 2025
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 1938–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$2,283
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $706 by
1983, on its way to $2,283 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $2,283; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 2025: $100 is worth $2,283 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-2025/