$100 in 1937 is worth $1,797 in 2020,
because prices increased 1697.3% over that period, an average of
3.54% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$1,797
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1697.3%
Average inflation rate
3.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,797
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,697
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1937 → 2020
$1,797
$100 in 2020 → 1937
$5.56
What happened to prices between 1937 and 2020
Between 1937 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1697.3%, which works out to an average of
3.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2020: the 1937 dollar
lost 94.4% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2020 at the same ratio, 17.97: $1,000 becomes
$17,973, and $10,000 becomes $179,730.
Amount in 1937
Value in 2020
$1.00
$17.97
$5.00
$89.86
$10.00
$180
$20.00
$359
$50.00
$899
$100
$1,797
$500
$8,986
$1,000
$17,973
$5,000
$89,865
$10,000
$179,730
$100,000
$1,797,299
$1,000,000
$17,972,986
Inflation by spending category, 1937–2020
Between 1937 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 4937.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 436.7%, against 1697.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.54%
$1,797
Medical care
4.84%
$5,038
Food
3.70%
$2,040
Transportation
3.22%
$1,389
Apparel
2.05%
$537
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 2020
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 1937–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,797
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $421 by
1977, on its way to $1,797 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $1,797; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 2020: $100 is worth $1,797 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2020/