$100 in 1937 is worth $135 in 1946,
because prices increased 35.4% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
35.4%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$35.42
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1937 → 1946
$135
$100 in 1946 → 1937
$73.85
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1946
Between 1937 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 35.4%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1946: the 1937 dollar
lost 26.2% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,354, and $10,000 becomes $13,542.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.77
$10.00
$13.54
$20.00
$27.08
$50.00
$67.71
$100
$135
$500
$677
$1,000
$1,354
$5,000
$6,771
$10,000
$13,542
$100,000
$135,417
$1,000,000
$1,354,167
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1946
Between 1937 and 1946, apparel rose the most, up 56.4%, while transportation rose the least, up 15.2%, against 35.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$135
Apparel
5.09%
$156
Food
4.70%
$151
Medical care
2.17%
$121
Transportation
1.58%
$115
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 1946
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.68% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1946 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1937, at end
1937–1940
-0.93%
-2.8%
$97.22
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$135
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $102 by
1941, on its way to $135 in 1946; 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 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1946: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1946/