$100 in 1937 is worth $1,312 in 2004,
because prices increased 1211.8% over that period, an average of
3.92% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$1,312
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1211.8%
Average inflation rate
3.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,312
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,212
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1937 → 2004
$1,312
$100 in 2004 → 1937
$7.62
What happened to prices between 1937 and 2004
Between 1937 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1211.8%, which works out to an average of
3.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2004: the 1937 dollar
lost 92.4% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2004 at the same ratio, 13.12: $1,000 becomes
$13,118, and $10,000 becomes $131,181.
Amount in 1937
Value in 2004
$1.00
$13.12
$5.00
$65.59
$10.00
$131
$20.00
$262
$50.00
$656
$100
$1,312
$500
$6,559
$1,000
$13,118
$5,000
$65,590
$10,000
$131,181
$100,000
$1,311,806
$1,000,000
$13,118,056
Inflation by spending category, 1937–2004
Between 1937 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 2910.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 447.3%, against 1211.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.92%
$1,312
Medical care
5.21%
$3,011
Food
4.04%
$1,421
Transportation
3.68%
$1,125
Apparel
2.57%
$547
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 2004
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 1937–2004 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,196
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$1,312
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $290 by
1972, on its way to $1,312 in 2004; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $1,312; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 2004: $100 is worth $1,312 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2004/