$100 in 1937 is worth $155 in 1947,
because prices increased 54.9% over that period, an average of
4.47% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$155
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
54.9%
Average inflation rate
4.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$155
Price difference ($100 base)
$54.86
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1937 → 1947
$155
$100 in 1947 → 1937
$64.57
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1947
Between 1937 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 54.9%, which works out to an average of
4.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1947: the 1937 dollar
lost 35.4% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.55: $1,000 becomes
$1,549, and $10,000 becomes $15,486.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.55
$5.00
$7.74
$10.00
$15.49
$20.00
$30.97
$50.00
$77.43
$100
$155
$500
$774
$1,000
$1,549
$5,000
$7,743
$10,000
$15,486
$100,000
$154,861
$1,000,000
$1,548,611
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1947
Between 1937 and 1947, food rose the most, up 84.0%, while transportation rose the least, up 27.6%, against 54.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.47%
$155
Food
6.29%
$184
Apparel
6.13%
$181
Medical care
2.74%
$131
Transportation
2.47%
$128
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1947 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1937, at end
1937–1940
-0.93%
-2.8%
$97.22
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $113 by
1942, on its way to $155 in 1947; 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.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $155; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1947: $100 is worth $155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1947/