$100 in 1935 is worth $163 in 1947,
because prices increased 62.8% over that period, an average of
4.14% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$163
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
62.8%
Average inflation rate
4.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$163
Price difference ($100 base)
$62.77
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1935 → 1947
$163
$100 in 1947 → 1935
$61.43
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1947
Between 1935 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 62.8%, which works out to an average of
4.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1947: the 1935 dollar
lost 38.6% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.63: $1,000 becomes
$1,628, and $10,000 becomes $16,277.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.63
$5.00
$8.14
$10.00
$16.28
$20.00
$32.55
$50.00
$81.39
$100
$163
$500
$814
$1,000
$1,628
$5,000
$8,139
$10,000
$16,277
$100,000
$162,774
$1,000,000
$1,627,737
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1947
Between 1935 and 1947, food rose the most, up 94.4%, while transportation rose the least, up 30.3%, against 62.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.14%
$163
Food
5.69%
$194
Apparel
5.58%
$192
Medical care
2.36%
$132
Transportation
2.23%
$130
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1947 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$163
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $107 by
1941, on its way to $163 in 1947; 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.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $163; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1947: $100 is worth $163 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1947/