$100 in 1935 is worth $727 in 1983,
because prices increased 627.0% over that period, an average of
4.22% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$727
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
627.0%
Average inflation rate
4.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$727
Price difference ($100 base)
$627
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1935 → 1983
$727
$100 in 1983 → 1935
$13.76
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1983
Between 1935 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 627.0%, which works out to an average of
4.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1983: the 1935 dollar
lost 86.2% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1983 at the same ratio, 7.27: $1,000 becomes
$7,270, and $10,000 becomes $72,701.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1983
$1.00
$7.27
$5.00
$36.35
$10.00
$72.70
$20.00
$145
$50.00
$364
$100
$727
$500
$3,635
$1,000
$7,270
$5,000
$36,350
$10,000
$72,701
$100,000
$727,007
$1,000,000
$7,270,073
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1983
Between 1935 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 886.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 381.7%, against 627.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.22%
$727
Medical care
4.88%
$986
Food
4.43%
$802
Transportation
4.14%
$699
Apparel
3.33%
$482
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1983 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$601
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$727
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $212 by
1959, on its way to $727 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $727; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1983: $100 is worth $727 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1983/