$100 in 1936 is worth $192 in 1953,
because prices increased 92.1% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$192
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
92.1%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$192
Price difference ($100 base)
$92.09
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1936 → 1953
$192
$100 in 1953 → 1936
$52.06
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1953
Between 1936 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 92.1%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1953: the 1936 dollar
lost 47.9% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.92: $1,000 becomes
$1,921, and $10,000 becomes $19,209.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.92
$5.00
$9.60
$10.00
$19.21
$20.00
$38.42
$50.00
$96.04
$100
$192
$500
$960
$1,000
$1,921
$5,000
$9,604
$10,000
$19,209
$100,000
$192,086
$1,000,000
$1,920,863
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1953
Between 1936 and 1953, food rose the most, up 124.6%, while medical care rose the least, up 69.6%, against 92.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$192
Food
4.87%
$225
Apparel
4.32%
$205
Transportation
3.70%
$185
Medical care
3.16%
$170
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 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$192
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $127 by
1944, on its way to $192 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $192; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $192 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1953/