$100 in 1934 is worth $818 in 1986,
because prices increased 717.9% over that period, an average of
4.12% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$818
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
717.9%
Average inflation rate
4.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$818
Price difference ($100 base)
$718
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1934 → 1986
$818
$100 in 1986 → 1934
$12.23
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1986
Between 1934 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 717.9%, which works out to an average of
4.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1986: the 1934 dollar
lost 87.8% of its purchasing power over
these 52 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1986 at the same ratio, 8.18: $1,000 becomes
$8,179, and $10,000 becomes $81,791.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1986
$1.00
$8.18
$5.00
$40.90
$10.00
$81.79
$20.00
$164
$50.00
$409
$100
$818
$500
$4,090
$1,000
$8,179
$5,000
$40,896
$10,000
$81,791
$100,000
$817,910
$1,000,000
$8,179,104
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1986
Between 1934 and 1986, food rose the most, up 839.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 414.1%, against 717.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.12%
$818
Food
4.40%
$940
Apparel
3.20%
$514
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1934 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1986 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$180
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$221
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$290
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$615
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$818
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $221 by
1960, on its way to $818 in 1986; 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 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1934 had the buying
power of $818; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1934 to 1986: $100 is worth $818 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1986/