$100 in 1940 is worth $1,691 in 2014,
because prices increased 1591.0% over that period, an average of
3.90% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,691
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1591.0%
Average inflation rate
3.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,691
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,591
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1940 → 2014
$1,691
$100 in 2014 → 1940
$5.91
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2014
Between 1940 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1591.0%, which works out to an average of
3.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2014: the 1940 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2014 at the same ratio, 16.91: $1,000 becomes
$16,910, and $10,000 becomes $169,097.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2014
$1.00
$16.91
$5.00
$84.55
$10.00
$169
$20.00
$338
$50.00
$845
$100
$1,691
$500
$8,455
$1,000
$16,910
$5,000
$84,549
$10,000
$169,097
$100,000
$1,690,971
$1,000,000
$16,909,714
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2014
Between 1940 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 4085.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 484.9%, against 1591.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.90%
$1,691
Medical care
5.18%
$4,186
Food
4.15%
$2,023
Transportation
3.75%
$1,521
Apparel
2.42%
$585
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 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,691
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $384 by
1975, on its way to $1,691 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,691; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,691 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2014/