$100 in 1935 is worth $176 in 1948,
because prices increased 75.9% over that period, an average of
4.44% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$176
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
75.9%
Average inflation rate
4.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$176
Price difference ($100 base)
$75.91
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1935 → 1948
$176
$100 in 1948 → 1935
$56.85
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1948
Between 1935 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 75.9%, which works out to an average of
4.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1948: the 1935 dollar
lost 43.2% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.76: $1,000 becomes
$1,759, and $10,000 becomes $17,591.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.76
$5.00
$8.80
$10.00
$17.59
$20.00
$35.18
$50.00
$87.96
$100
$176
$500
$880
$1,000
$1,759
$5,000
$8,796
$10,000
$17,591
$100,000
$175,912
$1,000,000
$1,759,124
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1948
Between 1935 and 1948, food rose the most, up 110.5%, while medical care rose the least, up 41.2%, against 75.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.44%
$176
Food
5.89%
$210
Apparel
5.65%
$204
Transportation
2.90%
$145
Medical care
2.69%
$141
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 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1948 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$176
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $107 by
1941, on its way to $176 in 1948; 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 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $176; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1948: $100 is worth $176 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1948/