$100 in 1936 is worth $788 in 1986,
because prices increased 688.5% over that period, an average of
4.22% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$788
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
688.5%
Average inflation rate
4.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$788
Price difference ($100 base)
$688
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1936 → 1986
$788
$100 in 1986 → 1936
$12.68
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1986
Between 1936 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 688.5%, which works out to an average of
4.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1986: the 1936 dollar
lost 87.3% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1986 at the same ratio, 7.88: $1,000 becomes
$7,885, and $10,000 becomes $78,849.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1986
$1.00
$7.88
$5.00
$39.42
$10.00
$78.85
$20.00
$158
$50.00
$394
$100
$788
$500
$3,942
$1,000
$7,885
$5,000
$39,424
$10,000
$78,849
$100,000
$788,489
$1,000,000
$7,884,892
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1986
Between 1936 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 1096.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 404.3%, against 688.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.22%
$788
Medical care
5.09%
$1,196
Food
4.41%
$865
Transportation
4.01%
$715
Apparel
3.29%
$504
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 1986
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 1936–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$788
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $213 by
1960, on its way to $788 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $788; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1986: $100 is worth $788 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1986/