$100 in 1935 is worth $1,676 in 2012,
because prices increased 1575.9% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,676
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1575.9%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,676
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,576
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1935 → 2012
$1,676
$100 in 2012 → 1935
$5.97
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2012
Between 1935 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1575.9%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2012: the 1935 dollar
lost 94.0% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2012 at the same ratio, 16.76: $1,000 becomes
$16,759, and $10,000 becomes $167,587.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2012
$1.00
$16.76
$5.00
$83.79
$10.00
$168
$20.00
$335
$50.00
$838
$100
$1,676
$500
$8,379
$1,000
$16,759
$5,000
$83,793
$10,000
$167,587
$100,000
$1,675,869
$1,000,000
$16,758,686
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2012
Between 1935 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 3967.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 507.0%, against 1575.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$1,676
Medical care
4.93%
$4,068
Food
3.89%
$1,885
Transportation
3.61%
$1,531
Apparel
2.37%
$607
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 2012
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 1935–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,676
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $393 by
1975, on its way to $1,676 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,676; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,676 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2012/