$100 in 1940 is worth $192 in 1954,
because prices increased 92.1% over that period, an average of
4.78% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$192
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
92.1%
Average inflation rate
4.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$192
Price difference ($100 base)
$92.14
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1940 → 1954
$192
$100 in 1954 → 1940
$52.04
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1954
Between 1940 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 92.1%, which works out to an average of
4.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1954: the 1940 dollar
lost 48.0% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.92: $1,000 becomes
$1,921, and $10,000 becomes $19,214.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.92
$5.00
$9.61
$10.00
$19.21
$20.00
$38.43
$50.00
$96.07
$100
$192
$500
$961
$1,000
$1,921
$5,000
$9,607
$10,000
$19,214
$100,000
$192,143
$1,000,000
$1,921,429
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1954
Between 1940 and 1954, food rose the most, up 135.0%, while medical care rose the least, up 71.2%, against 92.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.78%
$192
Food
6.29%
$235
Apparel
4.99%
$198
Transportation
4.44%
$184
Medical care
3.91%
$171
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–).
Decade by decade: 1940 to 1954
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.79% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–1954 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1940, at end
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$172
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$192
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $159 by
1947, on its way to $192 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $192; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1954: $100 is worth $192 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1954/