$100 in 1937 is worth $453 in 1978,
because prices increased 352.8% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$453
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
352.8%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$453
Price difference ($100 base)
$353
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1937 → 1978
$453
$100 in 1978 → 1937
$22.09
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1978
Between 1937 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 352.8%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1978: the 1937 dollar
lost 77.9% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1978 at the same ratio, 4.53: $1,000 becomes
$4,528, and $10,000 becomes $45,278.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1978
$1.00
$4.53
$5.00
$22.64
$10.00
$45.28
$20.00
$90.56
$50.00
$226
$100
$453
$500
$2,264
$1,000
$4,528
$5,000
$22,639
$10,000
$45,278
$100,000
$452,778
$1,000,000
$4,527,778
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1978
Between 1937 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 500.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 270.0%, against 352.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$453
Medical care
4.47%
$600
Food
4.24%
$550
Transportation
3.60%
$426
Apparel
3.24%
$370
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$453
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $195 by
1957, on its way to $453 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $453; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1978: $100 is worth $453 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1978/