$100 in 1937 is worth $255 in 1969,
because prices increased 154.9% over that period, an average of
2.97% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$255
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
154.9%
Average inflation rate
2.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$255
Price difference ($100 base)
$155
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1937 → 1969
$255
$100 in 1969 → 1937
$39.24
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1969
Between 1937 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 154.9%, which works out to an average of
2.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1969: the 1937 dollar
lost 60.8% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.55: $1,000 becomes
$2,549, and $10,000 becomes $25,486.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.55
$5.00
$12.74
$10.00
$25.49
$20.00
$50.97
$50.00
$127
$100
$255
$500
$1,274
$1,000
$2,549
$5,000
$12,743
$10,000
$25,486
$100,000
$254,861
$1,000,000
$2,548,611
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1969
Between 1937 and 1969, medical care rose the most, up 209.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 146.2%, against 154.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.97%
$255
Medical care
3.60%
$310
Food
3.31%
$283
Apparel
3.01%
$258
Transportation
2.86%
$246
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 1969
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 1937–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$255
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $185 by
1953, on its way to $255 in 1969; 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: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $255; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1969: $100 is worth $255 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1969/