$100 in 1940 is worth $172 in 1950,
because prices increased 72.1% over that period, an average of
5.58% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$172
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
72.1%
Average inflation rate
5.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$172
Price difference ($100 base)
$72.14
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1940 → 1950
$172
$100 in 1950 → 1940
$58.09
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1950
Between 1940 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 72.1%, which works out to an average of
5.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1950: the 1940 dollar
lost 41.9% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.72: $1,000 becomes
$1,721, and $10,000 becomes $17,214.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1950
$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, 1940–1950
Between 1940 and 1950, food rose the most, up 111.7%, while medical care rose the least, up 45.2%, against 72.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.58%
$172
Food
7.79%
$212
Apparel
6.34%
$185
Transportation
4.80%
$160
Medical care
3.80%
$145
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 $129 by
1945, on its way to $172 in 1950; 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 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $172; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1950: $100 is worth $172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1950/