$100 in 1936 is worth $1,129 in 1996,
because prices increased 1028.8% over that period, an average of
4.12% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,129
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1028.8%
Average inflation rate
4.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,129
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,029
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1936 → 1996
$1,129
$100 in 1996 → 1936
$8.86
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1996
Between 1936 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1028.8%, which works out to an average of
4.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1996: the 1936 dollar
lost 91.1% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1996 at the same ratio, 11.29: $1,000 becomes
$11,288, and $10,000 becomes $112,878.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1996
$1.00
$11.29
$5.00
$56.44
$10.00
$113
$20.00
$226
$50.00
$564
$100
$1,129
$500
$5,644
$1,000
$11,288
$5,000
$56,439
$10,000
$112,878
$100,000
$1,128,777
$1,000,000
$11,287,770
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1996
Between 1936 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 2137.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 527.1%, against 1028.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.12%
$1,129
Medical care
5.32%
$2,237
Food
4.25%
$1,217
Transportation
3.91%
$1,000
Apparel
3.11%
$627
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 1996
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 1936–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,129
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $233 by
1966, on its way to $1,129 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,129; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1996/