$100 in 1936 is worth $522 in 1979,
because prices increased 422.3% over that period, an average of
3.92% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$522
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
422.3%
Average inflation rate
3.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$522
Price difference ($100 base)
$422
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1936 → 1979
$522
$100 in 1979 → 1936
$19.15
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1979
Between 1936 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 422.3%, which works out to an average of
3.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1979: the 1936 dollar
lost 80.9% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1979 at the same ratio, 5.22: $1,000 becomes
$5,223, and $10,000 becomes $52,230.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1979
$1.00
$5.22
$5.00
$26.12
$10.00
$52.23
$20.00
$104
$50.00
$261
$100
$522
$500
$2,612
$1,000
$5,223
$5,000
$26,115
$10,000
$52,230
$100,000
$522,302
$1,000,000
$5,223,022
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1979
Between 1936 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 561.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 304.3%, against 422.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.92%
$522
Medical care
4.49%
$662
Food
4.39%
$634
Transportation
3.78%
$493
Apparel
3.30%
$404
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$522
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $208 by
1958, on its way to $522 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $522; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1979: $100 is worth $522 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1979/