$100 in 1935 is worth $220 in 1962,
because prices increased 120.4% over that period, an average of
2.97% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$220
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
120.4%
Average inflation rate
2.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$220
Price difference ($100 base)
$120
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1935 → 1962
$220
$100 in 1962 → 1935
$45.36
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1962
Between 1935 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 120.4%, which works out to an average of
2.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1962: the 1935 dollar
lost 54.6% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1962 at the same ratio, 2.20: $1,000 becomes
$2,204, and $10,000 becomes $22,044.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1962
$1.00
$2.20
$5.00
$11.02
$10.00
$22.04
$20.00
$44.09
$50.00
$110
$100
$220
$500
$1,102
$1,000
$2,204
$5,000
$11,022
$10,000
$22,044
$100,000
$220,438
$1,000,000
$2,204,380
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1962
Between 1935 and 1962, food rose the most, up 146.8%, while transportation rose the least, up 116.9%, against 120.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.97%
$220
Food
3.40%
$247
Medical care
3.14%
$230
Apparel
3.01%
$223
Transportation
2.91%
$217
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 1962
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 1935–1962 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
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$220
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $176 by
1948, on its way to $220 in 1962; 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 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $220; the year's average CPI of 30.2 is the level
behind every 1962 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1962, matching 1961’s pace as
inflation stayed remarkably low and unemployment slowly declined from its
recession-era highs. That January, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers
introduced “wage-price guideposts,” non-binding targets meant to keep pay
and price increases in line with productivity growth without formal
controls. The space race delivered a milestone that February, when John
Glenn’s Friendship 7 capsule circled Earth three times, making him the
first American to orbit the planet. Markets got a scare that spring: a
dispute over U.S. Steel’s April price increase, which Kennedy publicly
pressured the company into rolling back, rattled investors, and the Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell about 5.7% on May 28, its steepest one-day
drop since the 1929 crash. The year’s gravest moment came that October,
when American reconnaissance photographed Soviet nuclear missiles in
Cuba, setting off a 13-day standoff that brought the two superpowers
closer to nuclear war than at any other point in the Cold War before the
Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge
not to invade the island. Consumer prices finished 1962 205.1% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.15 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1962: $100 is worth $220 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1962/