$100 in 1935 is worth $1,566 in 2009,
because prices increased 1466.0% over that period, an average of
3.79% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,566
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1466.0%
Average inflation rate
3.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,566
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,466
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1935 → 2009
$1,566
$100 in 2009 → 1935
$6.39
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2009
Between 1935 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1466.0%, which works out to an average of
3.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2009: the 1935 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2009 at the same ratio, 15.66: $1,000 becomes
$15,660, and $10,000 becomes $156,596.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2009
$1.00
$15.66
$5.00
$78.30
$10.00
$157
$20.00
$313
$50.00
$783
$100
$1,566
$500
$7,830
$1,000
$15,660
$5,000
$78,298
$10,000
$156,596
$100,000
$1,565,964
$1,000,000
$15,659,635
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2009
Between 1935 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 3582.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 477.3%, against 1466.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.79%
$1,566
Medical care
4.99%
$3,682
Food
3.95%
$1,758
Transportation
3.49%
$1,262
Apparel
2.40%
$577
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 2009
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 1935–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,566
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $283 by
1970, on its way to $1,566 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,566; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,566 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2009/