$100 in 1935 is worth $476 in 1978,
because prices increased 375.9% over that period, an average of
3.69% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$476
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
375.9%
Average inflation rate
3.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$476
Price difference ($100 base)
$376
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1935 → 1978
$476
$100 in 1978 → 1935
$21.01
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1978
Between 1935 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 375.9%, which works out to an average of
3.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1978: the 1935 dollar
lost 79.0% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1978 at the same ratio, 4.76: $1,000 becomes
$4,759, and $10,000 becomes $47,591.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1978
$1.00
$4.76
$5.00
$23.80
$10.00
$47.59
$20.00
$95.18
$50.00
$238
$100
$476
$500
$2,380
$1,000
$4,759
$5,000
$23,796
$10,000
$47,591
$100,000
$475,912
$1,000,000
$4,759,124
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1978
Between 1935 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 505.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 291.3%, against 375.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.69%
$476
Medical care
4.28%
$606
Food
4.18%
$581
Transportation
3.48%
$435
Apparel
3.22%
$391
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$476
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $205 by
1957, on its way to $476 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $476; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1978: $100 is worth $476 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1978/