$100 in 1940 is worth $1,714 in 2016,
because prices increased 1614.3% over that period, an average of
3.81% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,714
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1614.3%
Average inflation rate
3.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,714
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,614
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1940 → 2016
$1,714
$100 in 2016 → 1940
$5.83
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2016
Between 1940 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1614.3%, which works out to an average of
3.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2016: the 1940 dollar
lost 94.2% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2016 at the same ratio, 17.14: $1,000 becomes
$17,143, and $10,000 becomes $171,434.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2016
$1.00
$17.14
$5.00
$85.72
$10.00
$171
$20.00
$343
$50.00
$857
$100
$1,714
$500
$8,572
$1,000
$17,143
$5,000
$85,717
$10,000
$171,434
$100,000
$1,714,336
$1,000,000
$17,143,357
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2016
Between 1940 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 4358.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 478.2%, against 1614.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.81%
$1,714
Medical care
5.12%
$4,458
Food
4.06%
$2,066
Transportation
3.51%
$1,372
Apparel
2.34%
$578
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 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,714
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $589 by
1980, on its way to $1,714 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,714; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,714 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2016/