$100 in 1936 is worth $1,096 in 1995,
because prices increased 996.4% over that period, an average of
4.14% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,096
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
996.4%
Average inflation rate
4.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,096
Price difference ($100 base)
$996
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1936 → 1995
$1,096
$100 in 1995 → 1936
$9.12
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1995
Between 1936 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 996.4%, which works out to an average of
4.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1995: the 1936 dollar
lost 90.9% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 1995 at the same ratio, 10.96: $1,000 becomes
$10,964, and $10,000 becomes $109,640.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1995
$1.00
$10.96
$5.00
$54.82
$10.00
$110
$20.00
$219
$50.00
$548
$100
$1,096
$500
$5,482
$1,000
$10,964
$5,000
$54,820
$10,000
$109,640
$100,000
$1,096,403
$1,000,000
$10,964,029
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1995
Between 1936 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 2061.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 528.6%, against 996.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.14%
$1,096
Medical care
5.35%
$2,162
Food
4.27%
$1,178
Transportation
3.93%
$973
Apparel
3.16%
$629
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 1995
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 1936–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$1,096
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $233 by
1966, on its way to $1,096 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,096; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1995: $100 is worth $1,096 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1995/