$100 in 1937 is worth $861 in 1989,
because prices increased 761.1% over that period, an average of
4.23% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$861
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
761.1%
Average inflation rate
4.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$861
Price difference ($100 base)
$761
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1937 → 1989
$861
$100 in 1989 → 1937
$11.61
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1989
Between 1937 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 761.1%, which works out to an average of
4.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1989: the 1937 dollar
lost 88.4% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1989 at the same ratio, 8.61: $1,000 becomes
$8,611, and $10,000 becomes $86,111.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1989
$1.00
$8.61
$5.00
$43.06
$10.00
$86.11
$20.00
$172
$50.00
$431
$100
$861
$500
$4,306
$1,000
$8,611
$5,000
$43,056
$10,000
$86,111
$100,000
$861,111
$1,000,000
$8,611,111
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1989
Between 1937 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 1349.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 439.1%, against 761.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.23%
$861
Medical care
5.28%
$1,450
Food
4.43%
$955
Transportation
4.05%
$787
Apparel
3.29%
$539
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 1989
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 1937–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$861
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $213 by
1963, on its way to $861 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $861; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1989: $100 is worth $861 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1989/