$100 in 1936 is worth $387 in 1975,
because prices increased 287.1% over that period, an average of
3.53% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$387
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
287.1%
Average inflation rate
3.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$387
Price difference ($100 base)
$287
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1936 → 1975
$387
$100 in 1975 → 1936
$25.84
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1975
Between 1936 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 287.1%, which works out to an average of
3.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1975: the 1936 dollar
lost 74.2% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.87: $1,000 becomes
$3,871, and $10,000 becomes $38,705.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.87
$5.00
$19.35
$10.00
$38.71
$20.00
$77.41
$50.00
$194
$100
$387
$500
$1,935
$1,000
$3,871
$5,000
$19,353
$10,000
$38,705
$100,000
$387,050
$1,000,000
$3,870,504
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1975
Between 1936 and 1975, food rose the most, up 374.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 245.2%, against 287.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.53%
$387
Food
4.07%
$475
Medical care
4.02%
$466
Transportation
3.27%
$350
Apparel
3.23%
$345
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$387
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $196 by
1956, on its way to $387 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $387; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1975: $100 is worth $387 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1975/