$100 in 1936 is worth $127 in 1944,
because prices increased 26.6% over that period, an average of
2.99% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$127
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
26.6%
Average inflation rate
2.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$127
Price difference ($100 base)
$26.62
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1936 → 1944
$127
$100 in 1944 → 1936
$78.98
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1944
Between 1936 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 26.6%, which works out to an average of
2.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.79 buys in 1944: the 1936 dollar
lost 21.0% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.27: $1,000 becomes
$1,266, and $10,000 becomes $12,662.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.27
$5.00
$6.33
$10.00
$12.66
$20.00
$25.32
$50.00
$63.31
$100
$127
$500
$633
$1,000
$1,266
$5,000
$6,331
$10,000
$12,662
$100,000
$126,619
$1,000,000
$1,266,187
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1944
Between 1936 and 1944, apparel rose the most, up 41.9%, while transportation rose the least, up 11.2%, against 26.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.99%
$127
Apparel
4.47%
$142
Food
3.74%
$134
Medical care
1.62%
$114
Transportation
1.33%
$111
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 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1944 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1936, at end
1936–1940
0.18%
0.7%
$101
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$127
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $101 by
1940, on its way to $127 in 1944; 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 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $127; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1944: $100 is worth $127 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1944/