$100 in 1933 is worth $107 in 1936,
because prices increased 6.9% over that period, an average of
2.26% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$107
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
6.9%
Average inflation rate
2.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$107
Price difference ($100 base)
$6.92
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1933 → 1936
$107
$100 in 1936 → 1933
$93.53
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1936
Between 1933 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 6.9%, which works out to an average of
2.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.94 buys in 1936: the 1933 dollar
lost 6.5% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1936 at the same ratio, 1.07: $1,000 becomes
$1,069, and $10,000 becomes $10,692.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1936
$1.00
$1.07
$5.00
$5.35
$10.00
$10.69
$20.00
$21.38
$50.00
$53.46
$100
$107
$500
$535
$1,000
$1,069
$5,000
$5,346
$10,000
$10,692
$100,000
$106,923
$1,000,000
$1,069,231
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1936
Between 1933 and 1936, food rose the most, up 21.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.7%, against 6.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.26%
$107
Food
6.61%
$121
Apparel
3.76%
$112
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 $107 in 1936; 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 1.5% in 1936.
In 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $107; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1936: $100 is worth $107 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1936/