$100 in 1935 is worth $193 in 1952,
because prices increased 93.4% over that period, an average of
3.96% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$193
in 1952
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
93.4%
Average inflation rate
3.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$193
Price difference ($100 base)
$93.43
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1952
26.5
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
$100 in 1935 → 1952
$193
$100 in 1952 → 1935
$51.70
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1952
Between 1935 and 1952, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 26.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 93.4%, which works out to an average of
3.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1952: the 1935 dollar
lost 48.3% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1952 at the same ratio, 1.93: $1,000 becomes
$1,934, and $10,000 becomes $19,343.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1952
$1.00
$1.93
$5.00
$9.67
$10.00
$19.34
$20.00
$38.69
$50.00
$96.72
$100
$193
$500
$967
$1,000
$1,934
$5,000
$9,672
$10,000
$19,343
$100,000
$193,431
$1,000,000
$1,934,307
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1952
Between 1935 and 1952, food rose the most, up 131.5%, while medical care rose the least, up 63.7%, against 93.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1952, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.96%
$193
Food
5.06%
$231
Apparel
4.44%
$209
Transportation
3.55%
$181
Medical care
2.94%
$164
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 1952
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1952 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$176
1950–1952
4.86%
10.0%
$193
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $126 by
1943, on its way to $193 in 1952; 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 1952, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $193; the year's average CPI of 26.5 is the level
behind every 1952 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1952: $100 is worth $193 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1952/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1952. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1952/