$100 in 1935 is worth $1,472 in 2006,
because prices increased 1371.5% over that period, an average of
3.86% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,472
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1371.5%
Average inflation rate
3.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,472
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,372
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1935 → 2006
$1,472
$100 in 2006 → 1935
$6.80
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2006
Between 1935 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1371.5%, which works out to an average of
3.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2006: the 1935 dollar
lost 93.2% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 2006 at the same ratio, 14.72: $1,000 becomes
$14,715, and $10,000 becomes $147,153.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2006
$1.00
$14.72
$5.00
$73.58
$10.00
$147
$20.00
$294
$50.00
$736
$100
$1,472
$500
$7,358
$1,000
$14,715
$5,000
$73,577
$10,000
$147,153
$100,000
$1,471,533
$1,000,000
$14,715,328
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2006
Between 1935 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 3196.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 474.5%, against 1371.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.86%
$1,472
Medical care
5.05%
$3,296
Food
3.96%
$1,574
Transportation
3.65%
$1,274
Apparel
2.49%
$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 2006
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 1935–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$1,472
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $283 by
1970, on its way to $1,472 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,472; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2006: $100 is worth $1,472 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2006/