$100 in 1937 is worth $186 in 1955,
because prices increased 86.1% over that period, an average of
3.51% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$186
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
86.1%
Average inflation rate
3.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$186
Price difference ($100 base)
$86.11
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1937 → 1955
$186
$100 in 1955 → 1937
$53.73
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1955
Between 1937 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 86.1%, which works out to an average of
3.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1955: the 1937 dollar
lost 46.3% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1955 at the same ratio, 1.86: $1,000 becomes
$1,861, and $10,000 becomes $18,611.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1955
$1.00
$1.86
$5.00
$9.31
$10.00
$18.61
$20.00
$37.22
$50.00
$93.06
$100
$186
$500
$931
$1,000
$1,861
$5,000
$9,306
$10,000
$18,611
$100,000
$186,111
$1,000,000
$1,861,111
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1955
Between 1937 and 1955, food rose the most, up 112.2%, while medical care rose the least, up 76.7%, against 86.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.51%
$186
Food
4.27%
$212
Apparel
3.78%
$195
Transportation
3.25%
$178
Medical care
3.21%
$177
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 1955
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 1937–1955 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
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$186
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $135 by
1946, on its way to $186 in 1955; 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 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $186; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1955: $100 is worth $186 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1955/