$100 in 1936 is worth $1,652 in 2012,
because prices increased 1551.8% over that period, an average of
3.76% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,652
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1551.8%
Average inflation rate
3.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,652
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,552
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1936 → 2012
$1,652
$100 in 2012 → 1936
$6.05
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2012
Between 1936 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1551.8%, which works out to an average of
3.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2012: the 1936 dollar
lost 93.9% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2012 at the same ratio, 16.52: $1,000 becomes
$16,518, and $10,000 becomes $165,176.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2012
$1.00
$16.52
$5.00
$82.59
$10.00
$165
$20.00
$330
$50.00
$826
$100
$1,652
$500
$8,259
$1,000
$16,518
$5,000
$82,588
$10,000
$165,176
$100,000
$1,651,755
$1,000,000
$16,517,554
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2012
Between 1936 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 3967.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 501.3%, against 1551.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.76%
$1,652
Medical care
5.00%
$4,068
Food
3.92%
$1,855
Transportation
3.65%
$1,520
Apparel
2.39%
$601
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 2012
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 1936–2012 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,569
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,652
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $409 by
1976, on its way to $1,652 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,652; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,652 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2012/