$100 in 1935 is worth $216 in 1960,
because prices increased 116.1% over that period, an average of
3.13% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$216
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
116.1%
Average inflation rate
3.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$216
Price difference ($100 base)
$116
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1935 → 1960
$216
$100 in 1960 → 1935
$46.28
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1960
Between 1935 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 116.1%, which works out to an average of
3.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1960: the 1935 dollar
lost 53.7% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1960 at the same ratio, 2.16: $1,000 becomes
$2,161, and $10,000 becomes $21,606.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1960
$1.00
$2.16
$5.00
$10.80
$10.00
$21.61
$20.00
$43.21
$50.00
$108
$100
$216
$500
$1,080
$1,000
$2,161
$5,000
$10,803
$10,000
$21,606
$100,000
$216,058
$1,000,000
$2,160,584
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1960
Between 1935 and 1960, food rose the most, up 141.9%, while transportation rose the least, up 109.9%, against 116.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.13%
$216
Food
3.60%
$242
Apparel
3.20%
$220
Medical care
3.18%
$219
Transportation
3.01%
$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 1960
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 1935–1960 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$216
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $163 by
1947, on its way to $216 in 1960; 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 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $216; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1960: $100 is worth $216 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1960/