$100 in 1940 is worth $1,558 in 2010,
because prices increased 1457.5% over that period, an average of
4.00% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,558
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1457.5%
Average inflation rate
4.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,558
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,458
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1940 → 2010
$1,558
$100 in 2010 → 1940
$6.42
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2010
Between 1940 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1457.5%, which works out to an average of
4.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2010: the 1940 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2010 at the same ratio, 15.58: $1,000 becomes
$15,575, and $10,000 becomes $155,754.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2010
$1.00
$15.58
$5.00
$77.88
$10.00
$156
$20.00
$312
$50.00
$779
$100
$1,558
$500
$7,788
$1,000
$15,575
$5,000
$77,877
$10,000
$155,754
$100,000
$1,557,543
$1,000,000
$15,575,429
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2010
Between 1940 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 3635.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 448.2%, against 1457.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.00%
$1,558
Medical care
5.31%
$3,735
Food
4.24%
$1,830
Transportation
3.80%
$1,362
Apparel
2.46%
$548
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 2010
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 1940–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,558
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $384 by
1975, on its way to $1,558 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,558; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,558 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2010/