$100 in 1935 is worth $1,055 in 1993,
because prices increased 954.7% over that period, an average of
4.15% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,055
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
954.7%
Average inflation rate
4.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,055
Price difference ($100 base)
$955
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1935 → 1993
$1,055
$100 in 1993 → 1935
$9.48
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1993
Between 1935 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 954.7%, which works out to an average of
4.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1993: the 1935 dollar
lost 90.5% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1993 at the same ratio, 10.55: $1,000 becomes
$10,547, and $10,000 becomes $105,474.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1993
$1.00
$10.55
$5.00
$52.74
$10.00
$105
$20.00
$211
$50.00
$527
$100
$1,055
$500
$5,274
$1,000
$10,547
$5,000
$52,737
$10,000
$105,474
$100,000
$1,054,745
$1,000,000
$10,547,445
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1993
Between 1935 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 1874.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 542.8%, against 954.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.15%
$1,055
Medical care
5.28%
$1,975
Food
4.28%
$1,136
Transportation
3.90%
$918
Apparel
3.26%
$643
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 1993
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 1935–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$1,055
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $223 by
1963, on its way to $1,055 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,055; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1993: $100 is worth $1,055 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1993/