$100 in 1935 is worth $2,224 in 2023,
because prices increased 2124.1% over that period, an average of
3.59% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$2,224
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2124.1%
Average inflation rate
3.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,224
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,124
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1935 → 2023
$2,224
$100 in 2023 → 1935
$4.50
What happened to prices between 1935 and 2023
Between 1935 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2124.1%, which works out to an average of
3.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2023: the 1935 dollar
lost 95.5% of its purchasing power over
these 88 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 2023 at the same ratio, 22.24: $1,000 becomes
$22,241, and $10,000 becomes $222,410.
Amount in 1935
Value in 2023
$1.00
$22.24
$5.00
$111
$10.00
$222
$20.00
$445
$50.00
$1,112
$100
$2,224
$500
$11,121
$1,000
$22,241
$5,000
$111,205
$10,000
$222,410
$100,000
$2,224,102
$1,000,000
$22,241,022
Inflation by spending category, 1935–2023
Between 1935 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 5283.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 527.8%, against 2124.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.59%
$2,224
Medical care
4.63%
$5,383
Food
3.77%
$2,605
Transportation
3.39%
$1,880
Apparel
2.11%
$628
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 2023
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 1935–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,889
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$2,224
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $601 by
1980, on its way to $2,224 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $2,224; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1935 to 2023: $100 is worth $2,224 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-2023/