$100 in 1936 is worth $291 in 1971,
because prices increased 191.4% over that period, an average of
3.10% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$291
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
191.4%
Average inflation rate
3.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$291
Price difference ($100 base)
$191
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1936 → 1971
$291
$100 in 1971 → 1936
$34.32
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1971
Between 1936 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 191.4%, which works out to an average of
3.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1971: the 1936 dollar
lost 65.7% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.91: $1,000 becomes
$2,914, and $10,000 becomes $29,137.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.91
$5.00
$14.57
$10.00
$29.14
$20.00
$58.27
$50.00
$146
$100
$291
$500
$1,457
$1,000
$2,914
$5,000
$14,568
$10,000
$29,137
$100,000
$291,367
$1,000,000
$2,913,669
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1971
Between 1936 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 253.9%, while transportation rose the least, up 176.2%, against 191.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.10%
$291
Medical care
3.68%
$354
Food
3.38%
$321
Apparel
3.10%
$291
Transportation
2.95%
$276
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 1971
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 1936–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$279
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$291
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $194 by
1954, on its way to $291 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $291; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1971: $100 is worth $291 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1971/