$100 in 1936 is worth $1,405 in 2005,
because prices increased 1305.0% over that period, an average of
3.90% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,405
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1305.0%
Average inflation rate
3.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,405
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,305
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1936 → 2005
$1,405
$100 in 2005 → 1936
$7.12
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2005
Between 1936 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1305.0%, which works out to an average of
3.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2005: the 1936 dollar
lost 92.9% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2005 at the same ratio, 14.05: $1,000 becomes
$14,050, and $10,000 becomes $140,504.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2005
$1.00
$14.05
$5.00
$70.25
$10.00
$141
$20.00
$281
$50.00
$703
$100
$1,405
$500
$7,025
$1,000
$14,050
$5,000
$70,252
$10,000
$140,504
$100,000
$1,405,036
$1,000,000
$14,050,360
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2005
Between 1936 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 3068.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 469.0%, against 1305.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.90%
$1,405
Medical care
5.14%
$3,169
Food
4.02%
$1,513
Transportation
3.69%
$1,216
Apparel
2.55%
$569
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 2005
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 1936–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,405
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $291 by
1971, on its way to $1,405 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,405; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,405 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2005/