$100 in 1936 is worth $187 in 1951,
because prices increased 87.1% over that period, an average of
4.26% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$187
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
87.1%
Average inflation rate
4.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$187
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.05
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1936 → 1951
$187
$100 in 1951 → 1936
$53.46
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1951
Between 1936 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 87.1%, which works out to an average of
4.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1951: the 1936 dollar
lost 46.5% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.87: $1,000 becomes
$1,871, and $10,000 becomes $18,705.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.87
$5.00
$9.35
$10.00
$18.71
$20.00
$37.41
$50.00
$93.53
$100
$187
$500
$935
$1,000
$1,871
$5,000
$9,353
$10,000
$18,705
$100,000
$187,050
$1,000,000
$1,870,504
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1951
Between 1936 and 1951, food rose the most, up 123.8%, while medical care rose the least, up 55.9%, against 87.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.26%
$187
Food
5.52%
$224
Apparel
5.04%
$209
Transportation
3.54%
$169
Medical care
3.00%
$156
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1936, at end
1936–1940
0.18%
0.7%
$101
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$173
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$187
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $124 by
1943, on its way to $187 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $187; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1951: $100 is worth $187 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1951/