$100 in 1937 is worth $1,490 in 2009,
because prices increased 1389.8% over that period, an average of
3.82% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$1,490
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1389.8%
Average inflation rate
3.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,490
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,390
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1937 → 2009
$1,490
$100 in 2009 → 1937
$6.71
What happened to prices between 1937 and 2009
Between 1937 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1389.8%, which works out to an average of
3.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2009: the 1937 dollar
lost 93.3% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 2009 at the same ratio, 14.90: $1,000 becomes
$14,898, and $10,000 becomes $148,984.
Amount in 1937
Value in 2009
$1.00
$14.90
$5.00
$74.49
$10.00
$149
$20.00
$298
$50.00
$745
$100
$1,490
$500
$7,449
$1,000
$14,898
$5,000
$74,492
$10,000
$148,984
$100,000
$1,489,840
$1,000,000
$14,898,403
Inflation by spending category, 1937–2009
Between 1937 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 3546.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 445.8%, against 1389.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.82%
$1,490
Medical care
5.12%
$3,647
Food
3.98%
$1,664
Transportation
3.55%
$1,236
Apparel
2.39%
$546
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 2009
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 1937–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,490
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $290 by
1972, on its way to $1,490 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $1,490; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,490 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2009/