$100 in 1935 is worth $101 in 1939,
because prices increased 1.5% over that period, an average of
0.36% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1939
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1.5%
Average inflation rate
0.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$1.46
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1939
13.9
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
$100 in 1935 → 1939
$101
$100 in 1939 → 1935
$98.56
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1939
Between 1935 and 1939, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1.5%, which works out to an average of
0.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1939: the 1935 dollar
lost 1.4% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
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.
Every 1935 amount converts to 1939 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,015, and $10,000 becomes $10,146.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1939
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.07
$10.00
$10.15
$20.00
$20.29
$50.00
$50.73
$100
$101
$500
$507
$1,000
$1,015
$5,000
$5,073
$10,000
$10,146
$100,000
$101,460
$1,000,000
$1,014,599
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1939
Between 1935 and 1939, apparel rose the most, up 3.8%, while food fell 4.8%, against 1.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1939, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.36%
$101
Apparel
0.95%
$104
Medical care
0.24%
$101
Transportation
0.18%
$101
Food
-1.23%
$95.16
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1935: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $105 by
1937, on its way to $101 in 1939; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1939, prices fell 1.4% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $101; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1939 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.4% in 1939, closing out a decade in which the CPI
fell in six years and rose in four, leaving prices 18.7% below their
1929 level even after the mid-decade recovery. Measured
against the start of the CPI’s modern record, prices still stood 40.4%
above their 1913 level, a reminder that even a decade defined
by deflation left the cost of living well above where it had been a
generation earlier. The decade’s final months reset the economic picture
entirely. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, and Britain and France
declared war two days later; the United States stayed formally neutral
under the Neutrality Acts, but Allied orders for war materiel began flowing
to American factories almost immediately, a demand shock that would do more
to end the Depression over the next few years than any peacetime relief
program had managed. Domestic policy kept building on the New Deal’s
framework, too: the federal minimum wage rose to 30 cents an hour that
October, the second step in the schedule set by the 1938 Fair Labor
Standards Act. Amid it all, the New York World’s Fair opened April 30 in
Queens, themed “The World of Tomorrow” and drawing tens of millions of
visitors with exhibits on television and other technologies promising a
more prosperous decade than the one just ending. First-class postage held
at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1939: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1939/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1939. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1939/