$100 in 1937 is worth $290 in 1972,
because prices increased 190.3% over that period, an average of
3.09% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$290
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
190.3%
Average inflation rate
3.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$290
Price difference ($100 base)
$190
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1937 → 1972
$290
$100 in 1972 → 1937
$34.45
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1972
Between 1937 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 190.3%, which works out to an average of
3.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1972: the 1937 dollar
lost 65.6% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1972 at the same ratio, 2.90: $1,000 becomes
$2,903, and $10,000 becomes $29,028.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.90
$5.00
$14.51
$10.00
$29.03
$20.00
$58.06
$50.00
$145
$100
$290
$500
$1,451
$1,000
$2,903
$5,000
$14,514
$10,000
$29,028
$100,000
$290,278
$1,000,000
$2,902,778
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1972
Between 1937 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 262.1%, while transportation rose the least, up 175.2%, against 190.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.09%
$290
Medical care
3.75%
$362
Food
3.39%
$321
Apparel
3.02%
$283
Transportation
2.93%
$275
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 1972
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 1937–1972 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$269
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$290
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $186 by
1955, on its way to $290 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $290; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1972: $100 is worth $290 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1972/