$100 in 1940 is worth $1,230 in 2000,
because prices increased 1130.0% over that period, an average of
4.27% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,230
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1130.0%
Average inflation rate
4.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,230
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,130
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1940 → 2000
$1,230
$100 in 2000 → 1940
$8.13
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2000
Between 1940 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1130.0%, which works out to an average of
4.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2000: the 1940 dollar
lost 91.9% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 2000 at the same ratio, 12.30: $1,000 becomes
$12,300, and $10,000 becomes $123,000.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2000
$1.00
$12.30
$5.00
$61.50
$10.00
$123
$20.00
$246
$50.00
$615
$100
$1,230
$500
$6,150
$1,000
$12,300
$5,000
$61,500
$10,000
$123,000
$100,000
$1,230,000
$1,000,000
$12,300,000
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2000
Between 1940 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 2407.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 494.5%, against 1130.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.27%
$1,230
Medical care
5.52%
$2,508
Food
4.49%
$1,398
Transportation
4.04%
$1,080
Apparel
3.02%
$594
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 2000
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 1940–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,230
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $277 by
1970, on its way to $1,230 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,230; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2000: $100 is worth $1,230 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2000/