$100 in 1940 is worth $783 in 1986,
because prices increased 682.9% over that period, an average of
4.58% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$783
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
682.9%
Average inflation rate
4.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$783
Price difference ($100 base)
$683
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1940 → 1986
$783
$100 in 1986 → 1940
$12.77
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1986
Between 1940 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 682.9%, which works out to an average of
4.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1986: the 1940 dollar
lost 87.2% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1986 at the same ratio, 7.83: $1,000 becomes
$7,829, and $10,000 becomes $78,286.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1986
$1.00
$7.83
$5.00
$39.14
$10.00
$78.29
$20.00
$157
$50.00
$391
$100
$783
$500
$3,914
$1,000
$7,829
$5,000
$39,143
$10,000
$78,286
$100,000
$782,857
$1,000,000
$7,828,571
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1986
Between 1940 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 1073.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 385.8%, against 682.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.58%
$783
Medical care
5.50%
$1,173
Food
4.91%
$908
Transportation
4.39%
$720
Apparel
3.50%
$486
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 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$783
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $216 by
1962, on its way to $783 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $783; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1986: $100 is worth $783 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1986/