$100 in 1933 is worth $105 in 1935,
because prices increased 5.4% over that period, an average of
2.66% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$105
in 1935
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
5.4%
Average inflation rate
2.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$105
Price difference ($100 base)
$5.38
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1935
13.7
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
$100 in 1933 → 1935
$105
$100 in 1935 → 1933
$94.89
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1935
Between 1933 and 1935, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 5.4%, which works out to an average of
2.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.95 buys in 1935: the 1933 dollar
lost 5.1% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1935 at the same ratio, 1.05: $1,000 becomes
$1,054, and $10,000 becomes $10,538.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1935
$1.00
$1.05
$5.00
$5.27
$10.00
$10.54
$20.00
$21.08
$50.00
$52.69
$100
$105
$500
$527
$1,000
$1,054
$5,000
$5,269
$10,000
$10,538
$100,000
$105,385
$1,000,000
$1,053,846
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1935
Between 1933 and 1935, food rose the most, up 19.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 10.6%, against 5.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1935, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.66%
$105
Food
9.19%
$119
Apparel
5.18%
$111
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $103 by
1934, on its way to $105 in 1935; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.1% in 1934, and the smallest rise was 2.2% in 1935.
In 1935, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $105; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1935 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.2% in 1935, a second straight annual increase after
1934’s turnaround, though the CPI still sat well below its
1929 peak and the recovery remained uneven and incomplete.
The year’s biggest legislative achievements aimed at making that unevenness
less punishing. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14,
creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by a new
payroll tax, the first federal safety net of its kind in U.S. history. That
spring, the Works Progress Administration had already begun putting millions
of unemployed Americans to work on public construction, arts, and
infrastructure projects, becoming the largest jobs program of the New Deal.
Congress added labor protections to the mix that July with the National
Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing most private-sector workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively. The human cost of the Dust Bowl was still
mounting on the Plains: the storm known as Black Sunday hit on April 14,
one of the worst of the decade, and continued drought kept driving farm
families off land that could no longer support them. Consumer prices ended
the year 38.4% above their 1913 level. First-class postage
held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1935: $100 is worth $105 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1935/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1935. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1935/