$100 in 1936 is worth $1,703 in 2014,
because prices increased 1603.1% over that period, an average of
3.70% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,703
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1603.1%
Average inflation rate
3.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,703
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,603
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1936 → 2014
$1,703
$100 in 2014 → 1936
$5.87
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2014
Between 1936 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1603.1%, which works out to an average of
3.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2014: the 1936 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2014 at the same ratio, 17.03: $1,000 becomes
$17,031, and $10,000 becomes $170,314.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2014
$1.00
$17.03
$5.00
$85.16
$10.00
$170
$20.00
$341
$50.00
$852
$100
$1,703
$500
$8,516
$1,000
$17,031
$5,000
$85,157
$10,000
$170,314
$100,000
$1,703,137
$1,000,000
$17,031,367
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2014
Between 1936 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 4167.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 507.2%, against 1603.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.70%
$1,703
Medical care
4.93%
$4,268
Food
3.87%
$1,926
Transportation
3.54%
$1,510
Apparel
2.34%
$607
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 2014
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 1936–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,703
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $409 by
1976, on its way to $1,703 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,703; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,703 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2014/