$100 in 1936 is worth $1,173 in 1998,
because prices increased 1072.7% over that period, an average of
4.05% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,173
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1072.7%
Average inflation rate
4.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,173
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,073
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1936 → 1998
$1,173
$100 in 1998 → 1936
$8.53
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1998
Between 1936 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1072.7%, which works out to an average of
4.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1998: the 1936 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1998 at the same ratio, 11.73: $1,000 becomes
$11,727, and $10,000 becomes $117,266.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1998
$1.00
$11.73
$5.00
$58.63
$10.00
$117
$20.00
$235
$50.00
$586
$100
$1,173
$500
$5,863
$1,000
$11,727
$5,000
$58,633
$10,000
$117,266
$100,000
$1,172,662
$1,000,000
$11,726,619
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1998
Between 1936 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 2273.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 533.3%, against 1072.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.05%
$1,173
Medical care
5.24%
$2,374
Food
4.19%
$1,275
Transportation
3.77%
$990
Apparel
3.02%
$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 1998
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 1936–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$1,173
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $233 by
1966, on its way to $1,173 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,173; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1998: $100 is worth $1,173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1998/