$100 in 1935 is worth $131 in 1945,
because prices increased 31.4% over that period, an average of
2.77% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$131
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
31.4%
Average inflation rate
2.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$131
Price difference ($100 base)
$31.39
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1935 → 1945
$131
$100 in 1945 → 1935
$76.11
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1945
Between 1935 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 31.4%, which works out to an average of
2.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.76 buys in 1945: the 1935 dollar
lost 23.9% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.31: $1,000 becomes
$1,314, and $10,000 becomes $13,139.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.31
$5.00
$6.57
$10.00
$13.14
$20.00
$26.28
$50.00
$65.69
$100
$131
$500
$657
$1,000
$1,314
$5,000
$6,569
$10,000
$13,139
$100,000
$131,387
$1,000,000
$1,313,869
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1945
Between 1935 and 1945, apparel rose the most, up 51.0%, while transportation rose the least, up 12.0%, against 31.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.77%
$131
Apparel
4.20%
$151
Food
3.39%
$140
Medical care
1.55%
$117
Transportation
1.14%
$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 1945
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.15% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1945 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1945
5.15%
28.6%
$131
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $102 by
1940, on its way to $131 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $131; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1945: $100 is worth $131 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1945/