$100 in 1937 is worth $202 in 1959,
because prices increased 102.1% over that period, an average of
3.25% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$202
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.1%
Average inflation rate
3.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$202
Price difference ($100 base)
$102
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1937 → 1959
$202
$100 in 1959 → 1937
$49.48
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1959
Between 1937 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.1%, which works out to an average of
3.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1959: the 1937 dollar
lost 50.5% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1959 at the same ratio, 2.02: $1,000 becomes
$2,021, and $10,000 becomes $20,208.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1959
$1.00
$2.02
$5.00
$10.10
$10.00
$20.21
$20.00
$40.42
$50.00
$101
$100
$202
$500
$1,010
$1,000
$2,021
$5,000
$10,104
$10,000
$20,208
$100,000
$202,083
$1,000,000
$2,020,833
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1959
Between 1937 and 1959, food rose the most, up 126.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 104.5%, against 102.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.25%
$202
Food
3.79%
$227
Medical care
3.40%
$209
Transportation
3.33%
$206
Apparel
3.31%
$205
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 1959
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 1937–1959 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
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$202
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $167 by
1948, on its way to $202 in 1959; 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 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $202; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1959: $100 is worth $202 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1959/