$100 in 1935 is worth $1,024 in 1992,
because prices increased 924.1% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,024
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
924.1%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,024
Price difference ($100 base)
$924
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1935 → 1992
$1,024
$100 in 1992 → 1935
$9.76
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1992
Between 1935 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 924.1%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1992: the 1935 dollar
lost 90.2% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1992 at the same ratio, 10.24: $1,000 becomes
$10,241, and $10,000 becomes $102,409.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1992
$1.00
$10.24
$5.00
$51.20
$10.00
$102
$20.00
$205
$50.00
$512
$100
$1,024
$500
$5,120
$1,000
$10,241
$5,000
$51,204
$10,000
$102,409
$100,000
$1,024,088
$1,000,000
$10,240,876
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1992
Between 1935 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 1763.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 534.1%, against 924.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$1,024
Medical care
5.27%
$1,864
Food
4.32%
$1,112
Transportation
3.91%
$891
Apparel
3.29%
$634
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 1992
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 1935–1992 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$954
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$1,024
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $223 by
1963, on its way to $1,024 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,024; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1992: $100 is worth $1,024 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1992/