$100 in 1936 is worth $1,807 in 2018,
because prices increased 1706.5% over that period, an average of
3.59% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,807
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1706.5%
Average inflation rate
3.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,807
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,707
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1936 → 2018
$1,807
$100 in 2018 → 1936
$5.54
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2018
Between 1936 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1706.5%, which works out to an average of
3.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2018: the 1936 dollar
lost 94.5% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 2018 at the same ratio, 18.07: $1,000 becomes
$18,065, and $10,000 becomes $180,653.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2018
$1.00
$18.07
$5.00
$90.33
$10.00
$181
$20.00
$361
$50.00
$903
$100
$1,807
$500
$9,033
$1,000
$18,065
$5,000
$90,326
$10,000
$180,653
$100,000
$1,806,525
$1,000,000
$18,065,252
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2018
Between 1936 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 4652.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 498.4%, against 1706.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.59%
$1,807
Medical care
4.82%
$4,752
Food
3.73%
$2,012
Transportation
3.33%
$1,473
Apparel
2.21%
$598
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 2018
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 1936–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,807
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $409 by
1976, on its way to $1,807 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,807; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,807 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2018/