$100 in 1936 is worth $301 in 1972,
because prices increased 200.7% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$301
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
200.7%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$301
Price difference ($100 base)
$201
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1936 → 1972
$301
$100 in 1972 → 1936
$33.25
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1972
Between 1936 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 200.7%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1972: the 1936 dollar
lost 66.7% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1972 at the same ratio, 3.01: $1,000 becomes
$3,007, and $10,000 becomes $30,072.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1972
$1.00
$3.01
$5.00
$15.04
$10.00
$30.07
$20.00
$60.14
$50.00
$150
$100
$301
$500
$1,504
$1,000
$3,007
$5,000
$15,036
$10,000
$30,072
$100,000
$300,719
$1,000,000
$3,007,194
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1972
Between 1936 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 265.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 179.0%, against 200.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$301
Medical care
3.67%
$366
Food
3.41%
$334
Apparel
3.07%
$297
Transportation
2.89%
$279
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 1972
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 1936–1972 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
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$301
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $194 by
1954, on its way to $301 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $301; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1972: $100 is worth $301 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1972/