$100 in 1935 is worth $1,379 in 2004,
because prices increased 1278.8% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,379
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1278.8%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,379
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,279
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1935 → 2004
$1,379
$100 in 2004 → 1935
$7.25
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2004
Between 1935 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1278.8%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2004: the 1935 dollar
lost 92.7% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2004 at the same ratio, 13.79: $1,000 becomes
$13,788, and $10,000 becomes $137,883.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2004
$1.00
$13.79
$5.00
$68.94
$10.00
$138
$20.00
$276
$50.00
$689
$100
$1,379
$500
$6,894
$1,000
$13,788
$5,000
$68,942
$10,000
$137,883
$100,000
$1,378,832
$1,000,000
$13,788,321
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2004
Between 1935 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 2940.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 478.8%, against 1278.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$1,379
Medical care
5.07%
$3,040
Food
4.00%
$1,502
Transportation
3.60%
$1,149
Apparel
2.58%
$579
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 2004
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 1935–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$1,379
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $283 by
1970, on its way to $1,379 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,379; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2004: $100 is worth $1,379 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2004/