$100 in 1940 is worth $206 in 1958,
because prices increased 106.4% over that period, an average of
4.11% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$206
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
106.4%
Average inflation rate
4.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$206
Price difference ($100 base)
$106
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1940 → 1958
$206
$100 in 1958 → 1940
$48.44
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1958
Between 1940 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 106.4%, which works out to an average of
4.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1958: the 1940 dollar
lost 51.6% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1958 at the same ratio, 2.06: $1,000 becomes
$2,064, and $10,000 becomes $20,643.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1958
$1.00
$2.06
$5.00
$10.32
$10.00
$20.64
$20.00
$41.29
$50.00
$103
$100
$206
$500
$1,032
$1,000
$2,064
$5,000
$10,321
$10,000
$20,643
$100,000
$206,429
$1,000,000
$2,064,286
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1958
Between 1940 and 1958, food rose the most, up 151.7%, while medical care rose the least, up 98.1%, against 106.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.11%
$206
Food
5.26%
$252
Apparel
4.06%
$205
Transportation
3.97%
$201
Medical care
3.87%
$198
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 1958
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.30% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–1958 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1940, at end
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$172
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$206
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $170 by
1949, on its way to $206 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $206; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1958: $100 is worth $206 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1958/