$100 in 1935 is worth $905 in 1989,
because prices increased 805.1% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$905
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
805.1%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$905
Price difference ($100 base)
$805
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1935 → 1989
$905
$100 in 1989 → 1935
$11.05
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1989
Between 1935 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 805.1%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1989: the 1935 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 1989 at the same ratio, 9.05: $1,000 becomes
$9,051, and $10,000 becomes $90,511.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1989
$1.00
$9.05
$5.00
$45.26
$10.00
$90.51
$20.00
$181
$50.00
$453
$100
$905
$500
$4,526
$1,000
$9,051
$5,000
$45,255
$10,000
$90,511
$100,000
$905,109
$1,000,000
$9,051,095
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1989
Between 1935 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 1363.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 470.2%, against 805.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$905
Medical care
5.10%
$1,464
Food
4.37%
$1,009
Transportation
3.93%
$804
Apparel
3.28%
$570
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 1989
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 1935–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$905
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $218 by
1961, on its way to $905 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $905; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1989: $100 is worth $905 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1989/