$100 in 1937 is worth $504 in 1979,
because prices increased 404.2% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$504
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
404.2%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$504
Price difference ($100 base)
$404
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1937 → 1979
$504
$100 in 1979 → 1937
$19.83
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1979
Between 1937 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 404.2%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1979: the 1937 dollar
lost 80.2% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1979 at the same ratio, 5.04: $1,000 becomes
$5,042, and $10,000 becomes $50,417.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1979
$1.00
$5.04
$5.00
$25.21
$10.00
$50.42
$20.00
$101
$50.00
$252
$100
$504
$500
$2,521
$1,000
$5,042
$5,000
$25,208
$10,000
$50,417
$100,000
$504,167
$1,000,000
$5,041,667
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1979
Between 1937 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 555.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 285.9%, against 404.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$504
Medical care
4.58%
$655
Food
4.40%
$610
Transportation
3.84%
$486
Apparel
3.27%
$386
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$504
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $195 by
1957, on its way to $504 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $504; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1979: $100 is worth $504 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1979/