$100 in 1937 is worth $206 in 1960,
because prices increased 105.6% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$206
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
105.6%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$206
Price difference ($100 base)
$106
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1937 → 1960
$206
$100 in 1960 → 1937
$48.65
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1960
Between 1937 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 105.6%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1960: the 1937 dollar
lost 51.4% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1960 at the same ratio, 2.06: $1,000 becomes
$2,056, and $10,000 becomes $20,556.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1960
$1.00
$2.06
$5.00
$10.28
$10.00
$20.56
$20.00
$41.11
$50.00
$103
$100
$206
$500
$1,028
$1,000
$2,056
$5,000
$10,278
$10,000
$20,556
$100,000
$205,556
$1,000,000
$2,055,556
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1960
Between 1937 and 1960, food rose the most, up 129.0%, while transportation rose the least, up 105.5%, against 105.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$206
Food
3.67%
$229
Medical care
3.42%
$217
Apparel
3.23%
$208
Transportation
3.18%
$206
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 1960
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 1937–1960 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$206
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $167 by
1948, on its way to $206 in 1960; 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 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $206; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1960: $100 is worth $206 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1960/