$100 in 1937 is worth $189 in 1956,
because prices increased 88.9% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$189
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
88.9%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$189
Price difference ($100 base)
$88.89
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1937 → 1956
$189
$100 in 1956 → 1937
$52.94
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1956
Between 1937 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 88.9%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1956: the 1937 dollar
lost 47.1% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.89: $1,000 becomes
$1,889, and $10,000 becomes $18,889.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.89
$5.00
$9.44
$10.00
$18.89
$20.00
$37.78
$50.00
$94.44
$100
$189
$500
$944
$1,000
$1,889
$5,000
$9,444
$10,000
$18,889
$100,000
$188,889
$1,000,000
$1,888,889
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1956
Between 1937 and 1956, food rose the most, up 113.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 80.7%, against 88.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$189
Food
4.08%
$214
Apparel
3.68%
$199
Medical care
3.25%
$183
Transportation
3.16%
$181
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 1956
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 1937–1956 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
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$189
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $135 by
1946, on its way to $189 in 1956; 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 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $189; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1956: $100 is worth $189 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1956/