$100 in 1935 is worth $1,082 in 1994,
because prices increased 981.8% over that period, an average of
4.12% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,082
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
981.8%
Average inflation rate
4.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,082
Price difference ($100 base)
$982
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1935 → 1994
$1,082
$100 in 1994 → 1935
$9.24
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1994
Between 1935 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 981.8%, which works out to an average of
4.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1994: the 1935 dollar
lost 90.8% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 1994 at the same ratio, 10.82: $1,000 becomes
$10,818, and $10,000 becomes $108,175.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1994
$1.00
$10.82
$5.00
$54.09
$10.00
$108
$20.00
$216
$50.00
$541
$100
$1,082
$500
$5,409
$1,000
$10,818
$5,000
$54,088
$10,000
$108,175
$100,000
$1,081,752
$1,000,000
$10,817,518
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1994
Between 1935 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 1968.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 541.3%, against 981.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.12%
$1,082
Medical care
5.27%
$2,069
Food
4.25%
$1,164
Transportation
3.88%
$946
Apparel
3.20%
$641
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 1994
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 1935–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$1,082
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $230 by
1965, on its way to $1,082 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,082; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 1994: $100 is worth $1,082 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1994/