$100 in 1940 is worth $1,146 in 1997,
because prices increased 1046.4% over that period, an average of
4.37% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,146
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1046.4%
Average inflation rate
4.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,146
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,046
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1940 → 1997
$1,146
$100 in 1997 → 1940
$8.72
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1997
Between 1940 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1046.4%, which works out to an average of
4.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1997: the 1940 dollar
lost 91.3% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1997 at the same ratio, 11.46: $1,000 becomes
$11,464, and $10,000 becomes $114,643.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1997
$1.00
$11.46
$5.00
$57.32
$10.00
$115
$20.00
$229
$50.00
$573
$100
$1,146
$500
$5,732
$1,000
$11,464
$5,000
$57,321
$10,000
$114,643
$100,000
$1,146,429
$1,000,000
$11,464,286
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1997
Between 1940 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 2155.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 509.6%, against 1046.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.37%
$1,146
Medical care
5.62%
$2,256
Food
4.62%
$1,311
Transportation
4.15%
$1,016
Apparel
3.22%
$610
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 1997
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 1940–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,146
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $249 by
1968, on its way to $1,146 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,146; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,146 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1997/