$100 in 1937 is worth $670 in 1982,
because prices increased 570.1% over that period, an average of
4.32% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$670
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
570.1%
Average inflation rate
4.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$670
Price difference ($100 base)
$570
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1937 → 1982
$670
$100 in 1982 → 1937
$14.92
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1982
Between 1937 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 570.1%, which works out to an average of
4.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1982: the 1937 dollar
lost 85.1% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1982 at the same ratio, 6.70: $1,000 becomes
$6,701, and $10,000 becomes $67,014.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1982
$1.00
$6.70
$5.00
$33.51
$10.00
$67.01
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$335
$100
$670
$500
$3,351
$1,000
$6,701
$5,000
$33,507
$10,000
$67,014
$100,000
$670,139
$1,000,000
$6,701,389
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1982
Between 1937 and 1982, medical care rose the most, up 798.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 344.5%, against 570.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.32%
$670
Medical care
5.00%
$898
Food
4.56%
$744
Transportation
4.31%
$669
Apparel
3.37%
$445
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1982 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$572
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$670
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $202 by
1959, on its way to $670 in 1982; 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: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $670; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1982: $100 is worth $670 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1982/