$100 in 1936 is worth $940 in 1990,
because prices increased 840.3% over that period, an average of
4.24% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$940
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
840.3%
Average inflation rate
4.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$940
Price difference ($100 base)
$840
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1936 → 1990
$940
$100 in 1990 → 1936
$10.64
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1990
Between 1936 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 840.3%, which works out to an average of
4.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1990: the 1936 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 1990 at the same ratio, 9.40: $1,000 becomes
$9,403, and $10,000 becomes $94,029.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1990
$1.00
$9.40
$5.00
$47.01
$10.00
$94.03
$20.00
$188
$50.00
$470
$100
$940
$500
$4,701
$1,000
$9,403
$5,000
$47,014
$10,000
$94,029
$100,000
$940,288
$1,000,000
$9,402,878
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1990
Between 1936 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 1496.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 491.0%, against 840.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.24%
$940
Medical care
5.26%
$1,596
Food
4.45%
$1,051
Transportation
4.03%
$843
Apparel
3.34%
$591
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 1990
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 1936–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$940
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $217 by
1962, on its way to $940 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $940; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1990: $100 is worth $940 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1990/