$100 in 1936 is worth $774 in 1985,
because prices increased 674.1% over that period, an average of
4.27% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$774
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
674.1%
Average inflation rate
4.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$774
Price difference ($100 base)
$674
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1936 → 1985
$774
$100 in 1985 → 1936
$12.92
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1985
Between 1936 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 674.1%, which works out to an average of
4.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1985: the 1936 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1985 at the same ratio, 7.74: $1,000 becomes
$7,741, and $10,000 becomes $77,410.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1985
$1.00
$7.74
$5.00
$38.71
$10.00
$77.41
$20.00
$155
$50.00
$387
$100
$774
$500
$3,871
$1,000
$7,741
$5,000
$38,705
$10,000
$77,410
$100,000
$774,101
$1,000,000
$7,741,007
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1985
Between 1936 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 1012.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 400.0%, against 674.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.27%
$774
Medical care
5.04%
$1,113
Food
4.43%
$838
Transportation
4.18%
$744
Apparel
3.34%
$500
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 1985
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 1936–1985 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
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$774
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $213 by
1960, on its way to $774 in 1985; 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: 1985
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $774; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1985: $100 is worth $774 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1985/