$100 in 1936 is worth $409 in 1976,
because prices increased 309.4% over that period, an average of
3.59% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$409
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
309.4%
Average inflation rate
3.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$409
Price difference ($100 base)
$309
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1936 → 1976
$409
$100 in 1976 → 1936
$24.43
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1976
Between 1936 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 309.4%, which works out to an average of
3.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1976: the 1936 dollar
lost 75.6% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1976 at the same ratio, 4.09: $1,000 becomes
$4,094, and $10,000 becomes $40,935.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1976
$1.00
$4.09
$5.00
$20.47
$10.00
$40.94
$20.00
$81.87
$50.00
$205
$100
$409
$500
$2,047
$1,000
$4,094
$5,000
$20,468
$10,000
$40,935
$100,000
$409,353
$1,000,000
$4,093,525
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1976
Between 1936 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 409.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 258.1%, against 309.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.59%
$409
Medical care
4.16%
$510
Food
4.05%
$489
Transportation
3.43%
$385
Apparel
3.24%
$358
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 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$409
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $196 by
1956, on its way to $409 in 1976; 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: 1976
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $409; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1976: $100 is worth $409 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1976/