$100 in 1935 is worth $1,426 in 2005,
because prices increased 1325.5% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,426
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1325.5%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,426
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,326
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1935 → 2005
$1,426
$100 in 2005 → 1935
$7.01
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2005
Between 1935 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1325.5%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2005: the 1935 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2005 at the same ratio, 14.26: $1,000 becomes
$14,255, and $10,000 becomes $142,555.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2005
$1.00
$14.26
$5.00
$71.28
$10.00
$143
$20.00
$285
$50.00
$713
$100
$1,426
$500
$7,128
$1,000
$14,255
$5,000
$71,277
$10,000
$142,555
$100,000
$1,425,547
$1,000,000
$14,255,474
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2005
Between 1935 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 3068.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 474.5%, against 1325.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$1,426
Medical care
5.06%
$3,169
Food
3.98%
$1,538
Transportation
3.64%
$1,225
Apparel
2.53%
$575
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 2005
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 1935–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,426
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $283 by
1970, on its way to $1,426 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,426; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,426 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2005/