$100 in 1937 is worth $213 in 1963,
because prices increased 112.5% over that period, an average of
2.94% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$213
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
112.5%
Average inflation rate
2.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$213
Price difference ($100 base)
$113
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1937 → 1963
$213
$100 in 1963 → 1937
$47.06
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1963
Between 1937 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 112.5%, which works out to an average of
2.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1963: the 1937 dollar
lost 52.9% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1963 at the same ratio, 2.13: $1,000 becomes
$2,125, and $10,000 becomes $21,250.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.13
$5.00
$10.63
$10.00
$21.25
$20.00
$42.50
$50.00
$106
$100
$213
$500
$1,063
$1,000
$2,125
$5,000
$10,625
$10,000
$21,250
$100,000
$212,500
$1,000,000
$2,125,000
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1963
Between 1937 and 1963, food rose the most, up 137.4%, while transportation rose the least, up 113.1%, against 112.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.94%
$213
Food
3.38%
$237
Medical care
3.32%
$234
Apparel
2.95%
$213
Transportation
2.95%
$213
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 1963
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 1937–1963 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
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$213
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $167 by
1950, on its way to $213 in 1963; 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 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $213; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1963: $100 is worth $213 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1963/