$100 in 1936 is worth $173 in 1948,
because prices increased 73.4% over that period, an average of
4.69% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$173
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
73.4%
Average inflation rate
4.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$173
Price difference ($100 base)
$73.38
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1936 → 1948
$173
$100 in 1948 → 1936
$57.68
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1948
Between 1936 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 73.4%, which works out to an average of
4.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1948: the 1936 dollar
lost 42.3% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.73: $1,000 becomes
$1,734, and $10,000 becomes $17,338.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.73
$5.00
$8.67
$10.00
$17.34
$20.00
$34.68
$50.00
$86.69
$100
$173
$500
$867
$1,000
$1,734
$5,000
$8,669
$10,000
$17,338
$100,000
$173,381
$1,000,000
$1,733,813
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1948
Between 1936 and 1948, food rose the most, up 107.1%, while medical care rose the least, up 41.2%, against 73.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.69%
$173
Food
6.26%
$207
Apparel
6.05%
$202
Transportation
3.09%
$144
Medical care
2.92%
$141
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 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1948 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1936, at end
1936–1940
0.18%
0.7%
$101
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$173
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $117 by
1942, on its way to $173 in 1948; 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.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $173; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1948: $100 is worth $173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1948/