$100 in 1935 is worth $758 in 1984,
because prices increased 658.4% over that period, an average of
4.22% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$758
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
658.4%
Average inflation rate
4.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$758
Price difference ($100 base)
$658
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1935 → 1984
$758
$100 in 1984 → 1935
$13.19
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1984
Between 1935 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 658.4%, which works out to an average of
4.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1984: the 1935 dollar
lost 86.8% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1984 at the same ratio, 7.58: $1,000 becomes
$7,584, and $10,000 becomes $75,839.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1984
$1.00
$7.58
$5.00
$37.92
$10.00
$75.84
$20.00
$152
$50.00
$379
$100
$758
$500
$3,792
$1,000
$7,584
$5,000
$37,920
$10,000
$75,839
$100,000
$758,394
$1,000,000
$7,583,942
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1984
Between 1935 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 947.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 390.9%, against 658.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.22%
$758
Medical care
4.91%
$1,047
Food
4.42%
$832
Transportation
4.14%
$730
Apparel
3.30%
$491
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 1984
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 1935–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$758
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $212 by
1959, on its way to $758 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $758; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1984: $100 is worth $758 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1984/