$100 in 1936 is worth $2,257 in 2024,
because prices increased 2156.8% over that period, an average of
3.60% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$2,257
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2156.8%
Average inflation rate
3.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,257
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,157
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1936 → 2024
$2,257
$100 in 2024 → 1936
$4.43
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2024
Between 1936 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2156.8%, which works out to an average of
3.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2024: the 1936 dollar
lost 95.6% of its purchasing power over
these 88 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 2024 at the same ratio, 22.57: $1,000 becomes
$22,568, and $10,000 becomes $225,676.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2024
$1.00
$22.57
$5.00
$113
$10.00
$226
$20.00
$451
$50.00
$1,128
$100
$2,257
$500
$11,284
$1,000
$22,568
$5,000
$112,838
$10,000
$225,676
$100,000
$2,256,755
$1,000,000
$22,567,554
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2024
Between 1936 and 2024, medical care rose the most, up 5427.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 526.1%, against 2156.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.60%
$2,257
Medical care
4.67%
$5,528
Food
3.78%
$2,621
Transportation
3.40%
$1,893
Apparel
2.11%
$626
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 2024
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 1936–2024 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
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$2,257
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $654 by
1981, on its way to $2,257 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $2,257; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2024: $100 is worth $2,257 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2024/