$100 in 1935 is worth $1,730 in 2015,
because prices increased 1630.1% over that period, an average of
3.63% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,730
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1630.1%
Average inflation rate
3.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,730
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,630
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1935 → 2015
$1,730
$100 in 2015 → 1935
$5.78
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2015
Between 1935 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1630.1%, which works out to an average of
3.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2015: the 1935 dollar
lost 94.2% of its purchasing power over
these 80 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 2015 at the same ratio, 17.30: $1,000 becomes
$17,301, and $10,000 becomes $173,005.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2015
$1.00
$17.30
$5.00
$86.50
$10.00
$173
$20.00
$346
$50.00
$865
$100
$1,730
$500
$8,650
$1,000
$17,301
$5,000
$86,503
$10,000
$173,005
$100,000
$1,730,051
$1,000,000
$17,300,511
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2015
Between 1935 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 4279.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 505.3%, against 1630.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.63%
$1,730
Medical care
4.84%
$4,380
Food
3.81%
$1,994
Transportation
3.36%
$1,402
Apparel
2.28%
$605
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 2015
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 1935–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,730
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $393 by
1975, on its way to $1,730 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,730; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,730 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2015/