$100 in 1936 is worth $319 in 1973,
because prices increased 219.4% over that period, an average of
3.19% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$319
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
219.4%
Average inflation rate
3.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$319
Price difference ($100 base)
$219
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1936 → 1973
$319
$100 in 1973 → 1936
$31.31
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1973
Between 1936 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 219.4%, which works out to an average of
3.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1973: the 1936 dollar
lost 68.7% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1973 at the same ratio, 3.19: $1,000 becomes
$3,194, and $10,000 becomes $31,942.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1973
$1.00
$3.19
$5.00
$15.97
$10.00
$31.94
$20.00
$63.88
$50.00
$160
$100
$319
$500
$1,597
$1,000
$3,194
$5,000
$15,971
$10,000
$31,942
$100,000
$319,424
$1,000,000
$3,194,245
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1973
Between 1936 and 1973, food rose the most, up 282.5%, while transportation rose the least, up 188.1%, against 219.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.19%
$319
Food
3.69%
$383
Medical care
3.68%
$380
Apparel
3.08%
$308
Transportation
2.90%
$288
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 1973
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 1936–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$319
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $194 by
1954, on its way to $319 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $319; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1973: $100 is worth $319 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1973/