$100 in 1935 is worth $530 in 1979,
because prices increased 429.9% over that period, an average of
3.86% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$530
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
429.9%
Average inflation rate
3.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$530
Price difference ($100 base)
$430
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1935 → 1979
$530
$100 in 1979 → 1935
$18.87
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1979
Between 1935 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 429.9%, which works out to an average of
3.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1979: the 1935 dollar
lost 81.1% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1979 at the same ratio, 5.30: $1,000 becomes
$5,299, and $10,000 becomes $52,993.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1979
$1.00
$5.30
$5.00
$26.50
$10.00
$52.99
$20.00
$106
$50.00
$265
$100
$530
$500
$2,650
$1,000
$5,299
$5,000
$26,496
$10,000
$52,993
$100,000
$529,927
$1,000,000
$5,299,270
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1979
Between 1935 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 561.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 308.2%, against 429.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.86%
$530
Medical care
4.39%
$662
Food
4.33%
$644
Transportation
3.71%
$496
Apparel
3.25%
$408
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$530
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $205 by
1957, on its way to $530 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $530; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1979: $100 is worth $530 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1979/