$100 in 1935 is worth $1,866 in 2019,
because prices increased 1766.1% over that period, an average of
3.55% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$1,866
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1766.1%
Average inflation rate
3.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,866
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,766
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1935 → 2019
$1,866
$100 in 2019 → 1935
$5.36
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2019
Between 1935 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1766.1%, which works out to an average of
3.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2019: the 1935 dollar
lost 94.6% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2019 at the same ratio, 18.66: $1,000 becomes
$18,661, and $10,000 becomes $186,611.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2019
$1.00
$18.66
$5.00
$93.31
$10.00
$187
$20.00
$373
$50.00
$933
$100
$1,866
$500
$9,331
$1,000
$18,661
$5,000
$93,305
$10,000
$186,611
$100,000
$1,866,109
$1,000,000
$18,661,095
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2019
Between 1935 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 4786.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 496.4%, against 1766.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.55%
$1,866
Medical care
4.74%
$4,886
Food
3.68%
$2,083
Transportation
3.26%
$1,479
Apparel
2.15%
$596
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 2019
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 1935–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,866
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $393 by
1975, on its way to $1,866 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $1,866; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,866 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2019/