$100 in 1940 is worth $1,164 in 1998,
because prices increased 1064.3% over that period, an average of
4.32% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,164
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1064.3%
Average inflation rate
4.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,164
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,064
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1940 → 1998
$1,164
$100 in 1998 → 1940
$8.59
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1998
Between 1940 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1064.3%, which works out to an average of
4.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1998: the 1940 dollar
lost 91.4% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1998 at the same ratio, 11.64: $1,000 becomes
$11,643, and $10,000 becomes $116,429.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1998
$1.00
$11.64
$5.00
$58.21
$10.00
$116
$20.00
$233
$50.00
$582
$100
$1,164
$500
$5,821
$1,000
$11,643
$5,000
$58,214
$10,000
$116,429
$100,000
$1,164,286
$1,000,000
$11,642,857
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1998
Between 1940 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 2227.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 510.1%, against 1064.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.32%
$1,164
Medical care
5.58%
$2,328
Food
4.58%
$1,339
Transportation
4.04%
$997
Apparel
3.17%
$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 1998
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 1940–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$1,164
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $249 by
1968, on its way to $1,164 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,164; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1998: $100 is worth $1,164 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1998/