$100 in 1936 is worth $1,324 in 2003,
because prices increased 1223.7% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,324
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1223.7%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,324
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,224
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1936 → 2003
$1,324
$100 in 2003 → 1936
$7.55
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2003
Between 1936 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1223.7%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2003: the 1936 dollar
lost 92.4% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2003 at the same ratio, 13.24: $1,000 becomes
$13,237, and $10,000 becomes $132,374.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2003
$1.00
$13.24
$5.00
$66.19
$10.00
$132
$20.00
$265
$50.00
$662
$100
$1,324
$500
$6,619
$1,000
$13,237
$5,000
$66,187
$10,000
$132,374
$100,000
$1,323,741
$1,000,000
$13,237,410
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2003
Between 1936 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 2812.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 475.7%, against 1223.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$1,324
Medical care
5.16%
$2,913
Food
4.05%
$1,429
Transportation
3.65%
$1,102
Apparel
2.65%
$576
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 2003
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 1936–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,324
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $291 by
1971, on its way to $1,324 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,324; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,324 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2003/