$100 in 1937 is worth $120 in 1943,
because prices increased 20.1% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$120
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.1%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$120
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.14
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1937 → 1943
$120
$100 in 1943 → 1937
$83.24
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1943
Between 1937 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.1%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1943: the 1937 dollar
lost 16.8% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in 1937, the fastest pace since before the
Depression and the fourth straight year of gains, leaving prices 10.8% above
their 1933 trough though still 15.8% below the
1929 peak. The recovery did not last the year. The National
Bureau of Economic Research dates a new business cycle peak to that May, the
start of what became known as the Recession of 1937-38. Policy tightened on
two fronts at once: the Federal Reserve had doubled bank reserve
requirements over the preceding year to head off inflation it worried was
building, and the federal government pulled back its own spending even as
new Social Security payroll taxes began draining money from paychecks
months before the first benefit checks went out. Together they choked off a
recovery that had not yet reached its pre-Depression footing. Not every
milestone that year was economic. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic
on May 27 after four years of construction, at the time the longest
suspension bridge span in the world, a rare bright spot in a year that would
end with the economy sliding backward again. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
Every 1937 amount converts to 1943 at the same ratio, 1.20: $1,000 becomes
$1,201, and $10,000 becomes $12,014.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1943
$1.00
$1.20
$5.00
$6.01
$10.00
$12.01
$20.00
$24.03
$50.00
$60.07
$100
$120
$500
$601
$1,000
$1,201
$5,000
$6,007
$10,000
$12,014
$100,000
$120,139
$1,000,000
$1,201,389
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1943
Between 1937 and 1943, food rose the most, up 30.5%, while medical care rose the least, up 8.7%, against 20.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$120
Food
4.54%
$131
Apparel
3.98%
$126
Transportation
1.55%
$110
Medical care
1.41%
$109
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1937: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1937 to 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1937, at end
1937–1940
-0.93%
-2.8%
$97.22
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$120
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $97.22 by
1940, on its way to $120 in 1943; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $120; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1943: $100 is worth $120 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1943/