$100 in 1936 is worth $227 in 1965,
because prices increased 126.6% over that period, an average of
2.86% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$227
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
126.6%
Average inflation rate
2.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$227
Price difference ($100 base)
$127
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1936 → 1965
$227
$100 in 1965 → 1936
$44.13
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1965
Between 1936 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 126.6%, which works out to an average of
2.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1965: the 1936 dollar
lost 55.9% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1965 at the same ratio, 2.27: $1,000 becomes
$2,266, and $10,000 becomes $22,662.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1965
$1.00
$2.27
$5.00
$11.33
$10.00
$22.66
$20.00
$45.32
$50.00
$113
$100
$227
$500
$1,133
$1,000
$2,266
$5,000
$11,331
$10,000
$22,662
$100,000
$226,619
$1,000,000
$2,266,187
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1965
Between 1936 and 1965, food rose the most, up 155.6%, while transportation rose the least, up 123.1%, against 126.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.86%
$227
Food
3.29%
$256
Medical care
3.17%
$247
Apparel
2.88%
$228
Transportation
2.81%
$223
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 1965
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 1936–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$227
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $173 by
1950, on its way to $227 in 1965; 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 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $227; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1965: $100 is worth $227 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1965/