$100 in 1937 is worth $722 in 1984,
because prices increased 621.5% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$722
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
621.5%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$722
Price difference ($100 base)
$622
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1937 → 1984
$722
$100 in 1984 → 1937
$13.86
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1984
Between 1937 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 621.5%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1984: the 1937 dollar
lost 86.1% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1984 at the same ratio, 7.22: $1,000 becomes
$7,215, and $10,000 becomes $72,153.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1984
$1.00
$7.22
$5.00
$36.08
$10.00
$72.15
$20.00
$144
$50.00
$361
$100
$722
$500
$3,608
$1,000
$7,215
$5,000
$36,076
$10,000
$72,153
$100,000
$721,528
$1,000,000
$7,215,278
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1984
Between 1937 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 936.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 364.1%, against 621.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$722
Medical care
5.10%
$1,037
Food
4.49%
$788
Transportation
4.27%
$715
Apparel
3.32%
$464
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 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1937–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$722
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $208 by
1961, on its way to $722 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $722; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1984: $100 is worth $722 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1984/