$100 in 1936 is worth $469 in 1978,
because prices increased 369.1% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$469
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
369.1%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$469
Price difference ($100 base)
$369
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1936 → 1978
$469
$100 in 1978 → 1936
$21.32
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1978
Between 1936 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 369.1%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1978: the 1936 dollar
lost 78.7% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1978 at the same ratio, 4.69: $1,000 becomes
$4,691, and $10,000 becomes $46,906.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1978
$1.00
$4.69
$5.00
$23.45
$10.00
$46.91
$20.00
$93.81
$50.00
$235
$100
$469
$500
$2,345
$1,000
$4,691
$5,000
$23,453
$10,000
$46,906
$100,000
$469,065
$1,000,000
$4,690,647
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1978
Between 1936 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 505.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 287.6%, against 369.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$469
Medical care
4.38%
$606
Food
4.24%
$571
Transportation
3.54%
$431
Apparel
3.28%
$388
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$469
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $196 by
1956, on its way to $469 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $469; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1978: $100 is worth $469 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1978/