$100 in 1937 is worth $125 in 1945,
because prices increased 25.0% over that period, an average of
2.83% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$125
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
25.0%
Average inflation rate
2.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$125
Price difference ($100 base)
$25.00
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1937 → 1945
$125
$100 in 1945 → 1937
$80.00
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1945
Between 1937 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 25.0%, which works out to an average of
2.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.80 buys in 1945: the 1937 dollar
lost 20.0% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.25: $1,000 becomes
$1,250, and $10,000 becomes $12,500.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.25
$5.00
$6.25
$10.00
$12.50
$20.00
$25.00
$50.00
$62.50
$100
$125
$500
$625
$1,000
$1,250
$5,000
$6,250
$10,000
$12,500
$100,000
$125,000
$1,000,000
$1,250,000
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1945
Between 1937 and 1945, apparel rose the most, up 42.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 9.7%, against 25.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.83%
$125
Apparel
4.55%
$143
Food
3.54%
$132
Medical care
1.82%
$116
Transportation
1.16%
$110
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 1945
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.15% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1945 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1937, at end
1937–1940
-0.93%
-2.8%
$97.22
1940–1945
5.15%
28.6%
$125
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $102 by
1941, on its way to $125 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $125; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1945: $100 is worth $125 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1945/