$100 in 1935 is worth $305 in 1972,
because prices increased 205.1% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$305
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
205.1%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$305
Price difference ($100 base)
$205
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1935 → 1972
$305
$100 in 1972 → 1935
$32.78
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1972
Between 1935 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 205.1%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1972: the 1935 dollar
lost 67.2% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1972 at the same ratio, 3.05: $1,000 becomes
$3,051, and $10,000 becomes $30,511.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1972
$1.00
$3.05
$5.00
$15.26
$10.00
$30.51
$20.00
$61.02
$50.00
$153
$100
$305
$500
$1,526
$1,000
$3,051
$5,000
$15,255
$10,000
$30,511
$100,000
$305,109
$1,000,000
$3,051,095
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1972
Between 1935 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 265.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 181.0%, against 205.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$305
Medical care
3.57%
$366
Food
3.36%
$340
Apparel
3.01%
$300
Transportation
2.83%
$281
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 1972
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 1935–1972 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
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$305
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $195 by
1953, on its way to $305 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $305; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1972: $100 is worth $305 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1972/