$100 in 1935 is worth $1,642 in 2011,
because prices increased 1541.9% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,642
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1541.9%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,642
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,542
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1935 → 2011
$1,642
$100 in 2011 → 1935
$6.09
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2011
Between 1935 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1541.9%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2011: the 1935 dollar
lost 93.9% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2011 at the same ratio, 16.42: $1,000 becomes
$16,419, and $10,000 becomes $164,189.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2011
$1.00
$16.42
$5.00
$82.09
$10.00
$164
$20.00
$328
$50.00
$821
$100
$1,642
$500
$8,209
$1,000
$16,419
$5,000
$82,095
$10,000
$164,189
$100,000
$1,641,891
$1,000,000
$16,418,905
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2011
Between 1935 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 3824.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 487.1%, against 1541.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$1,642
Medical care
4.95%
$3,924
Food
3.90%
$1,837
Transportation
3.62%
$1,496
Apparel
2.36%
$587
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 2011
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 1935–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,592
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$1,642
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $393 by
1975, on its way to $1,642 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,642; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2011: $100 is worth $1,642 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2011/