$100 in 1936 is worth $124 in 1943,
because prices increased 24.5% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$124
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
24.5%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$124
Price difference ($100 base)
$24.46
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1936 → 1943
$124
$100 in 1943 → 1936
$80.35
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1943
Between 1936 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 24.5%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.80 buys in 1943: the 1936 dollar
lost 19.7% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1943 at the same ratio, 1.24: $1,000 becomes
$1,245, and $10,000 becomes $12,446.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1943
$1.00
$1.24
$5.00
$6.22
$10.00
$12.45
$20.00
$24.89
$50.00
$62.23
$100
$124
$500
$622
$1,000
$1,245
$5,000
$6,223
$10,000
$12,446
$100,000
$124,460
$1,000,000
$1,244,604
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1943
Between 1936 and 1943, food rose the most, up 35.7%, while medical care rose the least, up 9.8%, against 24.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$124
Food
4.46%
$136
Apparel
4.09%
$132
Transportation
1.53%
$111
Medical care
1.35%
$110
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–).
Decade by decade: 1936 to 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1936, at end
1936–1940
0.18%
0.7%
$101
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$124
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $100 by
1939, on its way to $124 in 1943; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $124; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1943: $100 is worth $124 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1943/