$100 in 1936 is worth $100 in 1939,
because prices increased 0.0% over that period, an average of
0.00% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$100
in 1939
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
0.0%
Average inflation rate
0.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$100
Price difference ($100 base)
$0.00
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1939
13.9
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
$100 in 1936 → 1939
$100
$100 in 1939 → 1936
$100
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1939
Between 1936 and 1939, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 0.0%, which works out to an average of
0.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$1.00 buys in 1939: the 1936 dollar
lost 0.0% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
Every 1936 amount converts to 1939 at the same ratio, 1.00: $1,000 becomes
$1,000, and $10,000 becomes $10,000.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1939
$1.00
$1.00
$5.00
$5.00
$10.00
$10.00
$20.00
$20.00
$50.00
$50.00
$100
$100
$500
$500
$1,000
$1,000
$5,000
$5,000
$10,000
$10,000
$100,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
$1,000,000
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1939
Between 1936 and 1939, apparel rose the most, up 2.9%, while food fell 6.3%, against 0.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1939, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.00%
$100
Apparel
0.94%
$103
Medical care
0.33%
$101
Transportation
0.00%
$100
Food
-2.16%
$93.65
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1936: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $104 by
1937, on its way to $100 in 1939; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1939, prices fell 1.4% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $100; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1939 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.4% in 1939, closing out a decade in which the CPI
fell in six years and rose in four, leaving prices 18.7% below their
1929 level even after the mid-decade recovery. Measured
against the start of the CPI’s modern record, prices still stood 40.4%
above their 1913 level, a reminder that even a decade defined
by deflation left the cost of living well above where it had been a
generation earlier. The decade’s final months reset the economic picture
entirely. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, and Britain and France
declared war two days later; the United States stayed formally neutral
under the Neutrality Acts, but Allied orders for war materiel began flowing
to American factories almost immediately, a demand shock that would do more
to end the Depression over the next few years than any peacetime relief
program had managed. Domestic policy kept building on the New Deal’s
framework, too: the federal minimum wage rose to 30 cents an hour that
October, the second step in the schedule set by the 1938 Fair Labor
Standards Act. Amid it all, the New York World’s Fair opened April 30 in
Queens, themed “The World of Tomorrow” and drawing tens of millions of
visitors with exhibits on television and other technologies promising a
more prosperous decade than the one just ending. First-class postage held
at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1939: $100 is worth $100 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1939/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1939. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1939/