$100 in 1937 is worth $374 in 1975,
because prices increased 273.6% over that period, an average of
3.53% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$374
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
273.6%
Average inflation rate
3.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$374
Price difference ($100 base)
$274
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1937 → 1975
$374
$100 in 1975 → 1937
$26.77
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1975
Between 1937 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 273.6%, which works out to an average of
3.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1975: the 1937 dollar
lost 73.2% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.74: $1,000 becomes
$3,736, and $10,000 becomes $37,361.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.74
$5.00
$18.68
$10.00
$37.36
$20.00
$74.72
$50.00
$187
$100
$374
$500
$1,868
$1,000
$3,736
$5,000
$18,681
$10,000
$37,361
$100,000
$373,611
$1,000,000
$3,736,111
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1975
Between 1937 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 361.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 229.5%, against 273.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.53%
$374
Medical care
4.10%
$461
Food
4.08%
$456
Transportation
3.32%
$346
Apparel
3.19%
$330
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$374
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $186 by
1955, on its way to $374 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $374; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1975: $100 is worth $374 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1975/