$100 in 1935 is worth $1,833 in 2018,
because prices increased 1732.9% over that period, an average of
3.57% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,833
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1732.9%
Average inflation rate
3.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,833
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,733
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1935 → 2018
$1,833
$100 in 2018 → 1935
$5.46
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2018
Between 1935 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1732.9%, which works out to an average of
3.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2018: the 1935 dollar
lost 94.5% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2018 at the same ratio, 18.33: $1,000 becomes
$18,329, and $10,000 becomes $183,290.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2018
$1.00
$18.33
$5.00
$91.64
$10.00
$183
$20.00
$367
$50.00
$916
$100
$1,833
$500
$9,164
$1,000
$18,329
$5,000
$91,645
$10,000
$183,290
$100,000
$1,832,898
$1,000,000
$18,328,978
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2018
Between 1935 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 4652.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 504.1%, against 1732.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.57%
$1,833
Medical care
4.76%
$4,752
Food
3.70%
$2,045
Transportation
3.30%
$1,484
Apparel
2.19%
$604
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 2018
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 1935–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,833
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $393 by
1975, on its way to $1,833 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,833; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,833 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2018/