$100 in 1936 is worth $264 in 1969,
because prices increased 164.0% over that period, an average of
2.99% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$264
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
164.0%
Average inflation rate
2.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$264
Price difference ($100 base)
$164
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1936 → 1969
$264
$100 in 1969 → 1936
$37.87
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1969
Between 1936 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 164.0%, which works out to an average of
2.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1969: the 1936 dollar
lost 62.1% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.64: $1,000 becomes
$2,640, and $10,000 becomes $26,403.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.64
$5.00
$13.20
$10.00
$26.40
$20.00
$52.81
$50.00
$132
$100
$264
$500
$1,320
$1,000
$2,640
$5,000
$13,201
$10,000
$26,403
$100,000
$264,029
$1,000,000
$2,640,288
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1969
Between 1936 and 1969, medical care rose the most, up 212.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 149.7%, against 164.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.99%
$264
Medical care
3.52%
$313
Food
3.33%
$294
Apparel
3.06%
$270
Transportation
2.81%
$250
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 1969
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 1936–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$264
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $191 by
1952, on its way to $264 in 1969; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $264; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1969: $100 is worth $264 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1969/