$100 in 1935 is worth $142 in 1946,
because prices increased 42.3% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$142
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
42.3%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$142
Price difference ($100 base)
$42.34
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1935 → 1946
$142
$100 in 1946 → 1935
$70.26
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1946
Between 1935 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 42.3%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.70 buys in 1946: the 1935 dollar
lost 29.7% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.42: $1,000 becomes
$1,423, and $10,000 becomes $14,234.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.42
$5.00
$7.12
$10.00
$14.23
$20.00
$28.47
$50.00
$71.17
$100
$142
$500
$712
$1,000
$1,423
$5,000
$7,117
$10,000
$14,234
$100,000
$142,336
$1,000,000
$1,423,358
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1946
Between 1935 and 1946, apparel rose the most, up 65.4%, while transportation rose the least, up 17.6%, against 42.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$142
Apparel
4.68%
$165
Food
4.35%
$160
Medical care
1.87%
$123
Transportation
1.49%
$118
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 1946
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.68% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1946 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$142
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $102 by
1940, on its way to $142 in 1946; 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 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $142; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1946: $100 is worth $142 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1946/