$100 in 1936 is worth $1,705 in 2015,
because prices increased 1605.2% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,705
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1605.2%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,705
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,605
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1936 → 2015
$1,705
$100 in 2015 → 1936
$5.86
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2015
Between 1936 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1605.2%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2015: the 1936 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 2015 at the same ratio, 17.05: $1,000 becomes
$17,052, and $10,000 becomes $170,516.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2015
$1.00
$17.05
$5.00
$85.26
$10.00
$171
$20.00
$341
$50.00
$853
$100
$1,705
$500
$8,526
$1,000
$17,052
$5,000
$85,258
$10,000
$170,516
$100,000
$1,705,158
$1,000,000
$17,051,583
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2015
Between 1936 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 4279.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 499.5%, against 1605.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$1,705
Medical care
4.90%
$4,380
Food
3.84%
$1,962
Transportation
3.39%
$1,392
Apparel
2.29%
$600
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 2015
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 1936–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,705
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $409 by
1976, on its way to $1,705 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,705; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,705 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2015/