$100 in 1936 is worth $2,192 in 2023,
because prices increased 2092.1% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$2,192
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2092.1%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,192
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,092
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1936 → 2023
$2,192
$100 in 2023 → 1936
$4.56
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2023
Between 1936 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2092.1%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2023: the 1936 dollar
lost 95.4% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2023 at the same ratio, 21.92: $1,000 becomes
$21,921, and $10,000 becomes $219,210.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2023
$1.00
$21.92
$5.00
$110
$10.00
$219
$20.00
$438
$50.00
$1,096
$100
$2,192
$500
$10,961
$1,000
$21,921
$5,000
$109,605
$10,000
$219,210
$100,000
$2,192,101
$1,000,000
$21,921,007
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2023
Between 1936 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 5283.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 521.8%, against 2092.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$2,192
Medical care
4.69%
$5,383
Food
3.80%
$2,563
Transportation
3.42%
$1,867
Apparel
2.12%
$622
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 2023
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 1936–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,862
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$2,192
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $654 by
1981, on its way to $2,192 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $2,192; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2023: $100 is worth $2,192 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2023/