$100 in 1937 is worth $1,562 in 2011,
because prices increased 1462.1% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$1,562
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1462.1%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,562
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,462
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1937 → 2011
$1,562
$100 in 2011 → 1937
$6.40
What happened to prices between 1937 and 2011
Between 1937 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1462.1%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2011: the 1937 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2011 at the same ratio, 15.62: $1,000 becomes
$15,621, and $10,000 becomes $156,208.
Amount in 1937
Value in 2011
$1.00
$15.62
$5.00
$78.10
$10.00
$156
$20.00
$312
$50.00
$781
$100
$1,562
$500
$7,810
$1,000
$15,621
$5,000
$78,104
$10,000
$156,208
$100,000
$1,562,076
$1,000,000
$15,620,764
Inflation by spending category, 1937–2011
Between 1937 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 3786.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 455.1%, against 1462.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$1,562
Medical care
5.07%
$3,886
Food
3.93%
$1,739
Transportation
3.69%
$1,465
Apparel
2.34%
$555
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 2011
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 1937–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,514
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$1,562
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $290 by
1972, on its way to $1,562 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $1,562; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 2011: $100 is worth $1,562 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2011/