$100 in 1937 is worth $1,003 in 1993,
because prices increased 903.5% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$1,003
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
903.5%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,003
Price difference ($100 base)
$903
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1937 → 1993
$1,003
$100 in 1993 → 1937
$9.97
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1993
Between 1937 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 903.5%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1993: the 1937 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 1993 at the same ratio, 10.03: $1,000 becomes
$10,035, and $10,000 becomes $100,347.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1993
$1.00
$10.03
$5.00
$50.17
$10.00
$100
$20.00
$201
$50.00
$502
$100
$1,003
$500
$5,017
$1,000
$10,035
$5,000
$50,174
$10,000
$100,347
$100,000
$1,003,472
$1,000,000
$10,034,722
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1993
Between 1937 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 1855.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 507.7%, against 903.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$1,003
Medical care
5.45%
$1,955
Food
4.33%
$1,076
Transportation
4.00%
$899
Apparel
3.27%
$608
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 1993
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 1937–1993 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$908
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$1,003
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $219 by
1965, on its way to $1,003 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $1,003; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1993: $100 is worth $1,003 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1993/