$100 in 1936 is worth $1,727 in 2016,
because prices increased 1626.7% over that period, an average of
3.63% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,727
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1626.7%
Average inflation rate
3.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,727
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,627
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1936 → 2016
$1,727
$100 in 2016 → 1936
$5.79
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2016
Between 1936 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1626.7%, which works out to an average of
3.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2016: the 1936 dollar
lost 94.2% of its purchasing power over
these 80 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 2016 at the same ratio, 17.27: $1,000 becomes
$17,267, and $10,000 becomes $172,667.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2016
$1.00
$17.27
$5.00
$86.33
$10.00
$173
$20.00
$345
$50.00
$863
$100
$1,727
$500
$8,633
$1,000
$17,267
$5,000
$86,333
$10,000
$172,667
$100,000
$1,726,669
$1,000,000
$17,266,691
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2016
Between 1936 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 4445.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 500.2%, against 1626.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.63%
$1,727
Medical care
4.89%
$4,546
Food
3.79%
$1,968
Transportation
3.32%
$1,363
Apparel
2.27%
$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 2016
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 1936–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,727
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $409 by
1976, on its way to $1,727 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,727; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,727 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2016/