$100 in 1940 is worth $172 in 1948,
because prices increased 72.1% over that period, an average of
7.03% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$172
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
72.1%
Average inflation rate
7.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$172
Price difference ($100 base)
$72.14
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1940 → 1948
$172
$100 in 1948 → 1940
$58.09
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1948
Between 1940 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 72.1%, which works out to an average of
7.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1948: the 1940 dollar
lost 41.9% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1940, snapping 1939’s decline
and marking the first increase since 1937. The gain was modest, and the CPI
still stood 18.1% below its 1929 peak, a reminder of how far
the recovery from the Depression’s trough had left to go even as defense
orders from Britain and France began reaching American factories. War was
already reshaping domestic policy well before it touched American soil.
Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act that September, the
country’s first peacetime draft, requiring men aged 21 to 35 to register and
authorizing the induction of up to 900,000 men a year, more than a year
before Pearl Harbor. That November, Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented
third term, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie after campaigning on
keeping the United States out of the war then consuming Europe and Asia. The
promise would not hold much longer: within two years, wartime demand would
push consumer prices up faster than at any point since the aftermath of
World War I. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the federal minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour, the level set the previous October under
the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Every 1940 amount converts to 1948 at the same ratio, 1.72: $1,000 becomes
$1,721, and $10,000 becomes $17,214.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.72
$5.00
$8.61
$10.00
$17.21
$20.00
$34.43
$50.00
$86.07
$100
$172
$500
$861
$1,000
$1,721
$5,000
$8,607
$10,000
$17,214
$100,000
$172,143
$1,000,000
$1,721,429
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1948
Between 1940 and 1948, food rose the most, up 117.5%, while medical care rose the least, up 38.5%, against 72.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.03%
$172
Food
10.20%
$218
Apparel
8.70%
$195
Transportation
4.76%
$145
Medical care
4.15%
$138
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1940: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $126 by
1944, on its way to $172 in 1948; 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 the smallest rise was 1.7% in 1944.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $172; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1948: $100 is worth $172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1948/