$100 in 1936 is worth $2,316 in 2025,
because prices increased 2216.1% over that period, an average of
3.59% a year.
$100 in 1936 has
the same buying power as
$2,316
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2216.1%
Average inflation rate
3.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,316
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,216
CPI in 1936
13.9
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1936 → 2025
$2,316
$100 in 2025 → 1936
$4.32
What happened to prices between 1936 and 2025
Between 1936 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2216.1%, which works out to an average of
3.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1936 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2025: the 1936 dollar
lost 95.7% of its purchasing power over
these 89 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 2025 at the same ratio, 23.16: $1,000 becomes
$23,161, and $10,000 becomes $231,614.
Amount in 1936
Value in 2025
$1.00
$23.16
$5.00
$116
$10.00
$232
$20.00
$463
$50.00
$1,158
$100
$2,316
$500
$11,581
$1,000
$23,161
$5,000
$115,807
$10,000
$231,614
$100,000
$2,316,137
$1,000,000
$23,161,367
Inflation by spending category, 1936–2025
Between 1936 and 2025, medical care rose the most, up 5587.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 525.3%, against 2216.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1936
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1936 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.59%
$2,316
Medical care
4.64%
$5,687
Food
3.77%
$2,695
Transportation
3.37%
$1,903
Apparel
2.08%
$625
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 2025
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 1936–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$2,316
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1936
$100 from 1936 had already become $654 by
1981, on its way to $2,316 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1936 had the buying
power of $2,316; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1936 to 2025: $100 is worth $2,316 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1936 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1936-to-2025/