$100 in 1936 is worth $1,294 in 2002,
because prices increased 1194.2% over that period, an average of
3.96% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,294
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1194.2%
Average inflation rate
3.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,294
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,194
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1936 → 2002
$1,294
$100 in 2002 → 1936
$7.73
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2002
Between 1936 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1194.2%, which works out to an average of
3.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2002: the 1936 dollar
lost 92.3% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 2002 at the same ratio, 12.94: $1,000 becomes
$12,942, and $10,000 becomes $129,424.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2002
$1.00
$12.94
$5.00
$64.71
$10.00
$129
$20.00
$259
$50.00
$647
$100
$1,294
$500
$6,471
$1,000
$12,942
$5,000
$64,712
$10,000
$129,424
$100,000
$1,294,245
$1,000,000
$12,942,446
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2002
Between 1936 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 2700.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 490.5%, against 1194.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.96%
$1,294
Medical care
5.18%
$2,800
Food
4.08%
$1,398
Transportation
3.66%
$1,069
Apparel
2.73%
$590
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 2002
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 1936–2002 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,239
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,294
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $291 by
1971, on its way to $1,294 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,294; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,294 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2002/