$100 in 1936 is worth $194 in 1954,
because prices increased 93.5% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$194
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
93.5%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$194
Price difference ($100 base)
$93.53
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1936 → 1954
$194
$100 in 1954 → 1936
$51.67
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1954
Between 1936 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 93.5%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1954: the 1936 dollar
lost 48.3% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.94: $1,000 becomes
$1,935, and $10,000 becomes $19,353.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.94
$5.00
$9.68
$10.00
$19.35
$20.00
$38.71
$50.00
$96.76
$100
$194
$500
$968
$1,000
$1,935
$5,000
$9,676
$10,000
$19,353
$100,000
$193,525
$1,000,000
$1,935,252
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1954
Between 1936 and 1954, food rose the most, up 123.8%, while medical care rose the least, up 74.5%, against 93.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$194
Food
4.58%
$224
Apparel
4.08%
$205
Transportation
3.40%
$183
Medical care
3.14%
$175
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 1954
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 1936–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$194
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $129 by
1945, on its way to $194 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $194; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1954: $100 is worth $194 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1954/