$100 in 1936 is worth $202 in 1957,
because prices increased 102.2% over that period, an average of
3.41% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$202
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.2%
Average inflation rate
3.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$202
Price difference ($100 base)
$102
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1936 → 1957
$202
$100 in 1957 → 1936
$49.47
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1957
Between 1936 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.2%, which works out to an average of
3.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1957: the 1936 dollar
lost 50.5% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1957 at the same ratio, 2.02: $1,000 becomes
$2,022, and $10,000 becomes $20,216.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1957
$1.00
$2.02
$5.00
$10.11
$10.00
$20.22
$20.00
$40.43
$50.00
$101
$100
$202
$500
$1,011
$1,000
$2,022
$5,000
$10,108
$10,000
$20,216
$100,000
$202,158
$1,000,000
$2,021,583
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1957
Between 1936 and 1957, food rose the most, up 129.4%, while medical care rose the least, up 93.1%, against 102.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.41%
$202
Food
4.03%
$229
Apparel
3.64%
$212
Transportation
3.20%
$194
Medical care
3.18%
$193
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 1957
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 1936–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$202
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $140 by
1946, on its way to $202 in 1957; 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 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $202; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1957: $100 is worth $202 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1957/