$100 in 1936 is worth $1,066 in 1994,
because prices increased 966.2% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,066
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
966.2%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,066
Price difference ($100 base)
$966
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1936 → 1994
$1,066
$100 in 1994 → 1936
$9.38
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1994
Between 1936 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 966.2%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1994: the 1936 dollar
lost 90.6% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1994 at the same ratio, 10.66: $1,000 becomes
$10,662, and $10,000 becomes $106,619.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1994
$1.00
$10.66
$5.00
$53.31
$10.00
$107
$20.00
$213
$50.00
$533
$100
$1,066
$500
$5,331
$1,000
$10,662
$5,000
$53,309
$10,000
$106,619
$100,000
$1,066,187
$1,000,000
$10,661,871
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1994
Between 1936 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 1968.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 535.2%, against 966.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$1,066
Medical care
5.36%
$2,069
Food
4.29%
$1,145
Transportation
3.94%
$939
Apparel
3.24%
$635
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 1994
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 1936–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$1,066
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $223 by
1964, on its way to $1,066 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,066; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1994: $100 is worth $1,066 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1994/