$100 in 1935 is worth $254 in 1968,
because prices increased 154.0% over that period, an average of
2.87% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$254
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
154.0%
Average inflation rate
2.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$254
Price difference ($100 base)
$154
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1935 → 1968
$254
$100 in 1968 → 1935
$39.37
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1968
Between 1935 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 154.0%, which works out to an average of
2.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1968: the 1935 dollar
lost 60.6% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1968 at the same ratio, 2.54: $1,000 becomes
$2,540, and $10,000 becomes $25,401.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1968
$1.00
$2.54
$5.00
$12.70
$10.00
$25.40
$20.00
$50.80
$50.00
$127
$100
$254
$500
$1,270
$1,000
$2,540
$5,000
$12,701
$10,000
$25,401
$100,000
$254,015
$1,000,000
$2,540,146
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1968
Between 1935 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 193.1%, while transportation rose the least, up 141.5%, against 154.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.87%
$254
Medical care
3.31%
$293
Food
3.22%
$285
Apparel
2.92%
$258
Transportation
2.71%
$242
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 1968
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 1935–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$254
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $190 by
1951, on its way to $254 in 1968; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $254; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1968: $100 is worth $254 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1968/