$100 in 1940 is worth $1,002 in 1992,
because prices increased 902.1% over that period, an average of
4.53% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,002
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
902.1%
Average inflation rate
4.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,002
Price difference ($100 base)
$902
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1940 → 1992
$1,002
$100 in 1992 → 1940
$9.98
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1992
Between 1940 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 902.1%, which works out to an average of
4.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1992: the 1940 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1992 at the same ratio, 10.02: $1,000 becomes
$10,021, and $10,000 becomes $100,214.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1992
$1.00
$10.02
$5.00
$50.11
$10.00
$100
$20.00
$200
$50.00
$501
$100
$1,002
$500
$5,011
$1,000
$10,021
$5,000
$50,107
$10,000
$100,214
$100,000
$1,002,143
$1,000,000
$10,021,429
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1992
Between 1940 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 1727.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 505.0%, against 902.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.53%
$1,002
Medical care
5.75%
$1,828
Food
4.81%
$1,149
Transportation
4.30%
$891
Apparel
3.52%
$605
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 1992
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 1940–1992 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$934
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$1,002
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $231 by
1966, on its way to $1,002 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,002; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1992: $100 is worth $1,002 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1992/