$100 in 1940 is worth $352 in 1974,
because prices increased 252.1% over that period, an average of
3.77% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$352
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
252.1%
Average inflation rate
3.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$352
Price difference ($100 base)
$252
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1940 → 1974
$352
$100 in 1974 → 1940
$28.40
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1974
Between 1940 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 252.1%, which works out to an average of
3.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1974: the 1940 dollar
lost 71.6% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1974 at the same ratio, 3.52: $1,000 becomes
$3,521, and $10,000 becomes $35,214.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1974
$1.00
$3.52
$5.00
$17.61
$10.00
$35.21
$20.00
$70.43
$50.00
$176
$100
$352
$500
$1,761
$1,000
$3,521
$5,000
$17,607
$10,000
$35,214
$100,000
$352,143
$1,000,000
$3,521,429
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1974
Between 1940 and 1974, food rose the most, up 359.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 218.3%, against 252.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.77%
$352
Food
4.59%
$459
Medical care
4.22%
$408
Transportation
3.50%
$323
Apparel
3.46%
$318
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1940, at end
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$172
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$211
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$277
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$352
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $194 by
1956, on its way to $352 in 1974; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $352; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1974: $100 is worth $352 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1974/