$100 in 1936 is worth $1,155 in 1997,
because prices increased 1054.7% over that period, an average of
4.09% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,155
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1054.7%
Average inflation rate
4.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,155
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,055
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1936 → 1997
$1,155
$100 in 1997 → 1936
$8.66
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1997
Between 1936 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1054.7%, which works out to an average of
4.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1997: the 1936 dollar
lost 91.3% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1997 at the same ratio, 11.55: $1,000 becomes
$11,547, and $10,000 becomes $115,468.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1997
$1.00
$11.55
$5.00
$57.73
$10.00
$115
$20.00
$231
$50.00
$577
$100
$1,155
$500
$5,773
$1,000
$11,547
$5,000
$57,734
$10,000
$115,468
$100,000
$1,154,676
$1,000,000
$11,546,763
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1997
Between 1936 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 2200.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 532.9%, against 1054.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.09%
$1,155
Medical care
5.27%
$2,300
Food
4.23%
$1,248
Transportation
3.86%
$1,009
Apparel
3.07%
$633
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 1997
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 1936–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $233 by
1966, on its way to $1,155 in 1997; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,155; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1997/