$100 in 1936 is worth $717 in 1983,
because prices increased 616.5% over that period, an average of
4.28% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$717
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
616.5%
Average inflation rate
4.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$717
Price difference ($100 base)
$617
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1936 → 1983
$717
$100 in 1983 → 1936
$13.96
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1983
Between 1936 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 616.5%, which works out to an average of
4.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1983: the 1936 dollar
lost 86.0% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1983 at the same ratio, 7.17: $1,000 becomes
$7,165, and $10,000 becomes $71,655.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1983
$1.00
$7.17
$5.00
$35.83
$10.00
$71.65
$20.00
$143
$50.00
$358
$100
$717
$500
$3,583
$1,000
$7,165
$5,000
$35,827
$10,000
$71,655
$100,000
$716,547
$1,000,000
$7,165,468
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1983
Between 1936 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 886.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 377.1%, against 616.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.28%
$717
Medical care
4.99%
$986
Food
4.49%
$789
Transportation
4.21%
$694
Apparel
3.38%
$477
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1936–1983 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$593
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$717
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $213 by
1960, on its way to $717 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $717; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1983: $100 is worth $717 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1983/