$100 in 1936 is worth $1,839 in 2019,
because prices increased 1739.3% over that period, an average of
3.57% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$1,839
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1739.3%
Average inflation rate
3.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,839
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,739
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1936 → 2019
$1,839
$100 in 2019 → 1936
$5.44
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2019
Between 1936 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1739.3%, which works out to an average of
3.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2019: the 1936 dollar
lost 94.6% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2019 at the same ratio, 18.39: $1,000 becomes
$18,393, and $10,000 becomes $183,926.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2019
$1.00
$18.39
$5.00
$91.96
$10.00
$184
$20.00
$368
$50.00
$920
$100
$1,839
$500
$9,196
$1,000
$18,393
$5,000
$91,963
$10,000
$183,926
$100,000
$1,839,259
$1,000,000
$18,392,590
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2019
Between 1936 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 4786.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 490.7%, against 1739.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.57%
$1,839
Medical care
4.80%
$4,886
Food
3.71%
$2,050
Transportation
3.29%
$1,469
Apparel
2.16%
$591
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 2019
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 1936–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,839
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $409 by
1976, on its way to $1,839 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $1,839; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,839 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2019/