$100 in 1937 is worth $181 in 1951,
because prices increased 80.6% over that period, an average of
4.31% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$181
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
80.6%
Average inflation rate
4.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$181
Price difference ($100 base)
$80.56
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1937 → 1951
$181
$100 in 1951 → 1937
$55.38
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1951
Between 1937 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 80.6%, which works out to an average of
4.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1951: the 1937 dollar
lost 44.6% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.81: $1,000 becomes
$1,806, and $10,000 becomes $18,056.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.81
$5.00
$9.03
$10.00
$18.06
$20.00
$36.11
$50.00
$90.28
$100
$181
$500
$903
$1,000
$1,806
$5,000
$9,028
$10,000
$18,056
$100,000
$180,556
$1,000,000
$1,805,556
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1951
Between 1937 and 1951, food rose the most, up 115.3%, while medical care rose the least, up 54.4%, against 80.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.31%
$181
Food
5.63%
$215
Apparel
5.06%
$200
Transportation
3.70%
$166
Medical care
3.15%
$154
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1937, at end
1937–1940
-0.93%
-2.8%
$97.22
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$167
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$181
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $122 by
1944, on its way to $181 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $181; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1951: $100 is worth $181 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1951/