$100 in 1940 is worth $1,285 in 2002,
because prices increased 1185.0% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,285
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1185.0%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,285
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,185
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1940 → 2002
$1,285
$100 in 2002 → 1940
$7.78
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2002
Between 1940 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1185.0%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2002: the 1940 dollar
lost 92.2% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2002 at the same ratio, 12.85: $1,000 becomes
$12,850, and $10,000 becomes $128,500.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2002
$1.00
$12.85
$5.00
$64.25
$10.00
$129
$20.00
$257
$50.00
$643
$100
$1,285
$500
$6,425
$1,000
$12,850
$5,000
$64,250
$10,000
$128,500
$100,000
$1,285,000
$1,000,000
$12,850,000
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2002
Between 1940 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 2646.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 468.8%, against 1185.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$1,285
Medical care
5.49%
$2,746
Food
4.43%
$1,468
Transportation
3.91%
$1,077
Apparel
2.84%
$569
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 2002
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 1940–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,285
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $277 by
1970, on its way to $1,285 in 2002; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,285; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,285 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2002/