$100 in 1937 is worth $242 in 1968,
because prices increased 141.7% over that period, an average of
2.89% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$242
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
141.7%
Average inflation rate
2.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$242
Price difference ($100 base)
$142
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1937 → 1968
$242
$100 in 1968 → 1937
$41.38
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1968
Between 1937 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 141.7%, which works out to an average of
2.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1968: the 1937 dollar
lost 58.6% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1968 at the same ratio, 2.42: $1,000 becomes
$2,417, and $10,000 becomes $24,167.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1968
$1.00
$2.42
$5.00
$12.08
$10.00
$24.17
$20.00
$48.33
$50.00
$121
$100
$242
$500
$1,208
$1,000
$2,417
$5,000
$12,083
$10,000
$24,167
$100,000
$241,667
$1,000,000
$2,416,667
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1968
Between 1937 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 190.3%, while transportation rose the least, up 136.6%, against 141.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.89%
$242
Medical care
3.50%
$290
Food
3.25%
$269
Apparel
2.92%
$244
Transportation
2.82%
$237
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 1968
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 1937–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$242
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $185 by
1953, on its way to $242 in 1968; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $242; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1968: $100 is worth $242 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1968/