$100 in 1937 is worth $1,090 in 1996,
because prices increased 989.6% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$1,090
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
989.6%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,090
Price difference ($100 base)
$990
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1937 → 1996
$1,090
$100 in 1996 → 1937
$9.18
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1996
Between 1937 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 989.6%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1996: the 1937 dollar
lost 90.8% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 1996 at the same ratio, 10.90: $1,000 becomes
$10,896, and $10,000 becomes $108,958.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1996
$1.00
$10.90
$5.00
$54.48
$10.00
$109
$20.00
$218
$50.00
$545
$100
$1,090
$500
$5,448
$1,000
$10,896
$5,000
$54,479
$10,000
$108,958
$100,000
$1,089,583
$1,000,000
$10,895,833
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1996
Between 1937 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 2115.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 498.6%, against 989.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$1,090
Medical care
5.39%
$2,216
Food
4.26%
$1,170
Transportation
3.96%
$986
Apparel
3.08%
$599
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 1996
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 1937–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,090
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $232 by
1967, on its way to $1,090 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $1,090; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,090 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1996/