$100 in 1935 is worth $199 in 1956,
because prices increased 98.5% over that period, an average of
3.32% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$199
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
98.5%
Average inflation rate
3.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$199
Price difference ($100 base)
$98.54
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1935 → 1956
$199
$100 in 1956 → 1935
$50.37
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1956
Between 1935 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 98.5%, which works out to an average of
3.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1956: the 1935 dollar
lost 49.6% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.99: $1,000 becomes
$1,985, and $10,000 becomes $19,854.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.99
$5.00
$9.93
$10.00
$19.85
$20.00
$39.71
$50.00
$99.27
$100
$199
$500
$993
$1,000
$1,985
$5,000
$9,927
$10,000
$19,854
$100,000
$198,540
$1,000,000
$1,985,401
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1956
Between 1935 and 1956, food rose the most, up 125.8%, while transportation rose the least, up 84.5%, against 98.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.32%
$199
Food
3.95%
$226
Apparel
3.60%
$210
Medical care
2.98%
$185
Transportation
2.96%
$185
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 1956
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 1935–1956 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
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$199
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $131 by
1945, on its way to $199 in 1956; 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 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $199; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1956: $100 is worth $199 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1956/