$100 in 1936 is worth $1,199 in 1999,
because prices increased 1098.6% over that period, an average of
4.02% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,199
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1098.6%
Average inflation rate
4.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,199
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,099
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1936 → 1999
$1,199
$100 in 1999 → 1936
$8.34
What happened to prices between 1936 and 1999
Between 1936 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1098.6%, which works out to an average of
4.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1999: the 1936 dollar
lost 91.7% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 1999 at the same ratio, 11.99: $1,000 becomes
$11,986, and $10,000 becomes $119,856.
Amount in 1936
Value in 1999
$1.00
$11.99
$5.00
$59.93
$10.00
$120
$20.00
$240
$50.00
$599
$100
$1,199
$500
$5,993
$1,000
$11,986
$5,000
$59,928
$10,000
$119,856
$100,000
$1,198,561
$1,000,000
$11,985,612
Inflation by spending category, 1936–1999
Between 1936 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 2356.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 525.2%, against 1098.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.02%
$1,199
Medical care
5.21%
$2,457
Food
4.16%
$1,302
Transportation
3.74%
$1,010
Apparel
2.95%
$625
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 1999
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 1936–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,199
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $233 by
1966, on its way to $1,199 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,199; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,199 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-1999/