$100 in 1935 is worth $1,343 in 2003,
because prices increased 1243.1% over that period, an average of
3.89% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,343
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1243.1%
Average inflation rate
3.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,343
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,243
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1935 → 2003
$1,343
$100 in 2003 → 1935
$7.45
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2003
Between 1935 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1243.1%, which works out to an average of
3.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2003: the 1935 dollar
lost 92.6% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 2003 at the same ratio, 13.43: $1,000 becomes
$13,431, and $10,000 becomes $134,307.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2003
$1.00
$13.43
$5.00
$67.15
$10.00
$134
$20.00
$269
$50.00
$672
$100
$1,343
$500
$6,715
$1,000
$13,431
$5,000
$67,153
$10,000
$134,307
$100,000
$1,343,066
$1,000,000
$13,430,657
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2003
Between 1935 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 2812.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 481.3%, against 1243.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.89%
$1,343
Medical care
5.08%
$2,913
Food
4.01%
$1,452
Transportation
3.60%
$1,110
Apparel
2.62%
$581
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 2003
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 1935–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,257
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,343
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $283 by
1970, on its way to $1,343 in 2003; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,343; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,343 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2003/