$100 in 1940 is worth $811 in 1987,
because prices increased 711.4% over that period, an average of
4.56% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$811
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
711.4%
Average inflation rate
4.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$811
Price difference ($100 base)
$711
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1940 → 1987
$811
$100 in 1987 → 1940
$12.32
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1987
Between 1940 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 711.4%, which works out to an average of
4.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1987: the 1940 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1987 at the same ratio, 8.11: $1,000 becomes
$8,114, and $10,000 becomes $81,143.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1987
$1.00
$8.11
$5.00
$40.57
$10.00
$81.14
$20.00
$162
$50.00
$406
$100
$811
$500
$4,057
$1,000
$8,114
$5,000
$40,571
$10,000
$81,143
$100,000
$811,429
$1,000,000
$8,114,286
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1987
Between 1940 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 1151.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 407.3%, against 711.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.56%
$811
Medical care
5.52%
$1,251
Food
4.90%
$946
Transportation
4.36%
$742
Apparel
3.52%
$507
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 1987
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 1940–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$811
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $221 by
1964, on its way to $811 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $811; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1987: $100 is worth $811 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1987/