$100 in 1936 is worth $215 in 1961,
because prices increased 115.1% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$215
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
115.1%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$215
Price difference ($100 base)
$115
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1936 → 1961
$215
$100 in 1961 → 1936
$46.49
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1961
Between 1936 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 115.1%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1961: the 1936 dollar
lost 53.5% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1961 at the same ratio, 2.15: $1,000 becomes
$2,151, and $10,000 becomes $21,511.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1961
$1.00
$2.15
$5.00
$10.76
$10.00
$21.51
$20.00
$43.02
$50.00
$108
$100
$215
$500
$1,076
$1,000
$2,151
$5,000
$10,755
$10,000
$21,511
$100,000
$215,108
$1,000,000
$2,151,079
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1961
Between 1936 and 1961, food rose the most, up 141.3%, while transportation rose the least, up 110.5%, against 115.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$215
Food
3.59%
$241
Medical care
3.29%
$225
Apparel
3.20%
$220
Transportation
3.02%
$210
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 1961
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 1936–1961 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$213
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$215
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $173 by
1948, on its way to $215 in 1961; 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 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $215; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1961: $100 is worth $215 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1961/