$100 in 1940 is worth $1,538 in 2008,
because prices increased 1437.9% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,538
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1437.9%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,538
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,438
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1940 → 2008
$1,538
$100 in 2008 → 1940
$6.50
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2008
Between 1940 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1437.9%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2008: the 1940 dollar
lost 93.5% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 2008 at the same ratio, 15.38: $1,000 becomes
$15,379, and $10,000 becomes $153,788.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2008
$1.00
$15.38
$5.00
$76.89
$10.00
$154
$20.00
$308
$50.00
$769
$100
$1,538
$500
$7,689
$1,000
$15,379
$5,000
$76,894
$10,000
$153,788
$100,000
$1,537,879
$1,000,000
$15,378,786
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2008
Between 1940 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 3400.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 445.4%, against 1437.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$1,538
Medical care
5.37%
$3,501
Food
4.33%
$1,784
Transportation
3.93%
$1,377
Apparel
2.53%
$545
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 2008
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 1940–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$1,538
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $384 by
1975, on its way to $1,538 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,538; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2008: $100 is worth $1,538 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2008/