$100 in 1935 is worth $212 in 1959,
because prices increased 112.4% over that period, an average of
3.19% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$212
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
112.4%
Average inflation rate
3.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$212
Price difference ($100 base)
$112
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1935 → 1959
$212
$100 in 1959 → 1935
$47.08
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1959
Between 1935 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 112.4%, which works out to an average of
3.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1959: the 1935 dollar
lost 52.9% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1959 at the same ratio, 2.12: $1,000 becomes
$2,124, and $10,000 becomes $21,241.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1959
$1.00
$2.12
$5.00
$10.62
$10.00
$21.24
$20.00
$42.48
$50.00
$106
$100
$212
$500
$1,062
$1,000
$2,124
$5,000
$10,620
$10,000
$21,241
$100,000
$212,409
$1,000,000
$2,124,088
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1959
Between 1935 and 1959, food rose the most, up 139.5%, while transportation rose the least, up 109.9%, against 112.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.19%
$212
Food
3.71%
$240
Apparel
3.27%
$216
Medical care
3.16%
$211
Transportation
3.14%
$210
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 1959
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 1935–1959 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
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$212
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $163 by
1947, on its way to $212 in 1959; 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 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $212; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1959: $100 is worth $212 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1959/