$100 in 1935 is worth $296 in 1971,
because prices increased 195.6% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$296
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
195.6%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$296
Price difference ($100 base)
$196
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1935 → 1971
$296
$100 in 1971 → 1935
$33.83
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1971
Between 1935 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 195.6%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1971: the 1935 dollar
lost 66.2% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.96: $1,000 becomes
$2,956, and $10,000 becomes $29,562.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.96
$5.00
$14.78
$10.00
$29.56
$20.00
$59.12
$50.00
$148
$100
$296
$500
$1,478
$1,000
$2,956
$5,000
$14,781
$10,000
$29,562
$100,000
$295,620
$1,000,000
$2,956,204
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1971
Between 1935 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 253.9%, while transportation rose the least, up 178.2%, against 195.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$296
Medical care
3.57%
$354
Food
3.34%
$326
Apparel
3.04%
$294
Transportation
2.88%
$278
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 1971
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 1935–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$283
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$296
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $195 by
1953, on its way to $296 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $296; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1971: $100 is worth $296 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1971/