$100 in 1937 is worth $1,882 in 2021,
because prices increased 1781.7% over that period, an average of
3.56% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$1,882
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1781.7%
Average inflation rate
3.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,882
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,782
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1937 → 2021
$1,882
$100 in 2021 → 1937
$5.31
What happened to prices between 1937 and 2021
Between 1937 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1781.7%, which works out to an average of
3.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2021: the 1937 dollar
lost 94.7% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2021 at the same ratio, 18.82: $1,000 becomes
$18,817, and $10,000 becomes $188,174.
Amount in 1937
Value in 2021
$1.00
$18.82
$5.00
$94.09
$10.00
$188
$20.00
$376
$50.00
$941
$100
$1,882
$500
$9,409
$1,000
$18,817
$5,000
$94,087
$10,000
$188,174
$100,000
$1,881,736
$1,000,000
$18,817,361
Inflation by spending category, 1937–2021
Between 1937 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 4999.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 450.0%, against 1781.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.56%
$1,882
Medical care
4.79%
$5,100
Food
3.70%
$2,120
Transportation
3.35%
$1,591
Apparel
2.05%
$550
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 2021
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 1937–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$1,882
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937 had already become $421 by
1977, on its way to $1,882 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $1,882; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 2021: $100 is worth $1,882 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-2021/