$100 in 1935 is worth $195 in 1953,
because prices increased 94.9% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$195
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
94.9%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$195
Price difference ($100 base)
$94.89
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1935 → 1953
$195
$100 in 1953 → 1935
$51.31
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1953
Between 1935 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 94.9%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1953: the 1935 dollar
lost 48.7% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.95: $1,000 becomes
$1,949, and $10,000 becomes $19,489.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.95
$5.00
$9.74
$10.00
$19.49
$20.00
$38.98
$50.00
$97.45
$100
$195
$500
$974
$1,000
$1,949
$5,000
$9,745
$10,000
$19,489
$100,000
$194,891
$1,000,000
$1,948,905
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1953
Between 1935 and 1953, food rose the most, up 128.2%, while medical care rose the least, up 69.6%, against 94.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$195
Food
4.69%
$228
Apparel
4.13%
$207
Transportation
3.53%
$187
Medical care
2.98%
$170
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 1953
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 1935–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$195
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $128 by
1944, on its way to $195 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $195; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $195 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1953/