$100 in 1937 is worth $232 in 1967,
because prices increased 131.9% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$232
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
131.9%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$232
Price difference ($100 base)
$132
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1937 → 1967
$232
$100 in 1967 → 1937
$43.11
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1967
Between 1937 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 131.9%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1967: the 1937 dollar
lost 56.9% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1967 at the same ratio, 2.32: $1,000 becomes
$2,319, and $10,000 becomes $23,194.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1967
$1.00
$2.32
$5.00
$11.60
$10.00
$23.19
$20.00
$46.39
$50.00
$116
$100
$232
$500
$1,160
$1,000
$2,319
$5,000
$11,597
$10,000
$23,194
$100,000
$231,944
$1,000,000
$2,319,444
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1967
Between 1937 and 1967, medical care rose the most, up 173.8%, while transportation rose the least, up 129.7%, against 131.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$232
Medical care
3.41%
$274
Food
3.24%
$260
Apparel
2.84%
$232
Transportation
2.81%
$230
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 1967
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 1937–1967 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
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$232
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $184 by
1952, on its way to $232 in 1967; 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 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $232; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1967: $100 is worth $232 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1967/