$100 in 1937 is worth $185 in 1953,
because prices increased 85.4% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$185
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
85.4%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$185
Price difference ($100 base)
$85.42
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1937 → 1953
$185
$100 in 1953 → 1937
$53.93
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1953
Between 1937 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 85.4%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1953: the 1937 dollar
lost 46.1% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.85: $1,000 becomes
$1,854, and $10,000 becomes $18,542.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.85
$5.00
$9.27
$10.00
$18.54
$20.00
$37.08
$50.00
$92.71
$100
$185
$500
$927
$1,000
$1,854
$5,000
$9,271
$10,000
$18,542
$100,000
$185,417
$1,000,000
$1,854,167
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1953
Between 1937 and 1953, food rose the most, up 116.0%, while medical care rose the least, up 68.0%, against 85.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$185
Food
4.93%
$216
Apparel
4.29%
$196
Transportation
3.84%
$183
Medical care
3.29%
$168
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 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$185
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $125 by
1945, on its way to $185 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $185; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $185 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1953/