$100 in 1940 is worth $649 in 1981,
because prices increased 549.3% over that period, an average of
4.67% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$649
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
549.3%
Average inflation rate
4.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$649
Price difference ($100 base)
$549
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1940 → 1981
$649
$100 in 1981 → 1940
$15.40
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1981
Between 1940 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 549.3%, which works out to an average of
4.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1981: the 1940 dollar
lost 84.6% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1981 at the same ratio, 6.49: $1,000 becomes
$6,493, and $10,000 becomes $64,929.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1981
$1.00
$6.49
$5.00
$32.46
$10.00
$64.93
$20.00
$130
$50.00
$325
$100
$649
$500
$3,246
$1,000
$6,493
$5,000
$32,464
$10,000
$64,929
$100,000
$649,286
$1,000,000
$6,492,857
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1981
Between 1940 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 697.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 337.2%, against 549.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.67%
$649
Medical care
5.19%
$797
Food
5.14%
$780
Transportation
4.70%
$656
Apparel
3.66%
$437
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$589
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$649
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $211 by
1960, on its way to $649 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $649; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1981: $100 is worth $649 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1981/