$100 in 1935 is worth $128 in 1944,
because prices increased 28.5% over that period, an average of
2.82% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$128
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
28.5%
Average inflation rate
2.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$128
Price difference ($100 base)
$28.47
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1935 → 1944
$128
$100 in 1944 → 1935
$77.84
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1944
Between 1935 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 28.5%, which works out to an average of
2.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1944: the 1935 dollar
lost 22.2% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.28: $1,000 becomes
$1,285, and $10,000 becomes $12,847.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.28
$5.00
$6.42
$10.00
$12.85
$20.00
$25.69
$50.00
$64.23
$100
$128
$500
$642
$1,000
$1,285
$5,000
$6,423
$10,000
$12,847
$100,000
$128,467
$1,000,000
$1,284,672
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1944
Between 1935 and 1944, apparel rose the most, up 43.3%, while transportation rose the least, up 12.0%, against 28.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.82%
$128
Apparel
4.08%
$143
Food
3.50%
$136
Medical care
1.44%
$114
Transportation
1.26%
$112
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–).
Decade by decade: 1935 to 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1944 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$128
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $101 by
1939, on its way to $128 in 1944; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $128; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1944: $100 is worth $128 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1944/