$100 in 1936 is worth $1,359 in 2004,
because prices increased 1259.0% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,359
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1259.0%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,359
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,259
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1936 → 2004
$1,359
$100 in 2004 → 1936
$7.36
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2004
Between 1936 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1259.0%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2004: the 1936 dollar
lost 92.6% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 2004 at the same ratio, 13.59: $1,000 becomes
$13,590, and $10,000 becomes $135,899.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2004
$1.00
$13.59
$5.00
$67.95
$10.00
$136
$20.00
$272
$50.00
$679
$100
$1,359
$500
$6,795
$1,000
$13,590
$5,000
$67,950
$10,000
$135,899
$100,000
$1,358,993
$1,000,000
$13,589,928
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2004
Between 1936 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 2940.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 473.3%, against 1259.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$1,359
Medical care
5.15%
$3,040
Food
4.04%
$1,478
Transportation
3.64%
$1,141
Apparel
2.60%
$573
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 2004
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 1936–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$1,359
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $291 by
1971, on its way to $1,359 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,359; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2004: $100 is worth $1,359 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2004/