$100 in 1937 is worth $167 in 1948,
because prices increased 67.4% over that period, an average of
4.79% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$167
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
67.4%
Average inflation rate
4.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$167
Price difference ($100 base)
$67.36
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1937 → 1948
$167
$100 in 1948 → 1937
$59.75
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1948
Between 1937 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 67.4%, which works out to an average of
4.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1948: the 1937 dollar
lost 40.2% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.67: $1,000 becomes
$1,674, and $10,000 becomes $16,736.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.67
$5.00
$8.37
$10.00
$16.74
$20.00
$33.47
$50.00
$83.68
$100
$167
$500
$837
$1,000
$1,674
$5,000
$8,368
$10,000
$16,736
$100,000
$167,361
$1,000,000
$1,673,611
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1948
Between 1937 and 1948, food rose the most, up 99.2%, while medical care rose the least, up 39.8%, against 67.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.79%
$167
Food
6.47%
$199
Apparel
6.17%
$193
Transportation
3.24%
$142
Medical care
3.09%
$140
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 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1948 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1937, at end
1937–1940
-0.93%
-2.8%
$97.22
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$167
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $113 by
1942, on its way to $167 in 1948; 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 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $167; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1948: $100 is worth $167 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1948/