$100 in 1937 is worth $195 in 1957,
because prices increased 95.1% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$195
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
95.1%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$195
Price difference ($100 base)
$95.14
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1937 → 1957
$195
$100 in 1957 → 1937
$51.25
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1957
Between 1937 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 95.1%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1957: the 1937 dollar
lost 48.8% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.95: $1,000 becomes
$1,951, and $10,000 becomes $19,514.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.95
$5.00
$9.76
$10.00
$19.51
$20.00
$39.03
$50.00
$97.57
$100
$195
$500
$976
$1,000
$1,951
$5,000
$9,757
$10,000
$19,514
$100,000
$195,139
$1,000,000
$1,951,389
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1957
Between 1937 and 1957, food rose the most, up 120.6%, while transportation rose the least, up 91.0%, against 95.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$195
Food
4.04%
$221
Apparel
3.58%
$202
Medical care
3.30%
$191
Transportation
3.29%
$191
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 1957
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 1937–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$195
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $155 by
1947, on its way to $195 in 1957; 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 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $195; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1957: $100 is worth $195 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1957/