$100 in 1936 is worth $220 in 1963,
because prices increased 120.1% over that period, an average of
2.97% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$220
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
120.1%
Average inflation rate
2.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$220
Price difference ($100 base)
$120
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1936 → 1963
$220
$100 in 1963 → 1936
$45.42
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1963
Between 1936 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 120.1%, which works out to an average of
2.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1963: the 1936 dollar
lost 54.6% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1963 at the same ratio, 2.20: $1,000 becomes
$2,201, and $10,000 becomes $22,014.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.20
$5.00
$11.01
$10.00
$22.01
$20.00
$44.03
$50.00
$110
$100
$220
$500
$1,101
$1,000
$2,201
$5,000
$11,007
$10,000
$22,014
$100,000
$220,144
$1,000,000
$2,201,439
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1963
Between 1936 and 1963, food rose the most, up 146.8%, while transportation rose the least, up 116.1%, against 120.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.97%
$220
Food
3.40%
$247
Medical care
3.24%
$236
Apparel
3.02%
$223
Transportation
2.89%
$216
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 1963
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 1936–1963 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
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$220
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $171 by
1949, on its way to $220 in 1963; 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 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $220; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1963: $100 is worth $220 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1963/