$100 in 1940 is worth $1,794 in 2018,
because prices increased 1693.6% over that period, an average of
3.77% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,794
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1693.6%
Average inflation rate
3.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,794
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,694
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1940 → 2018
$1,794
$100 in 2018 → 1940
$5.58
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2018
Between 1940 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1693.6%, which works out to an average of
3.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2018: the 1940 dollar
lost 94.4% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2018 at the same ratio, 17.94: $1,000 becomes
$17,936, and $10,000 becomes $179,362.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2018
$1.00
$17.94
$5.00
$89.68
$10.00
$179
$20.00
$359
$50.00
$897
$100
$1,794
$500
$8,968
$1,000
$17,936
$5,000
$89,681
$10,000
$179,362
$100,000
$1,793,621
$1,000,000
$17,936,214
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2018
Between 1940 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 4560.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 476.4%, against 1693.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.77%
$1,794
Medical care
5.05%
$4,661
Food
3.99%
$2,113
Transportation
3.52%
$1,484
Apparel
2.27%
$576
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 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,794
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $589 by
1980, on its way to $1,794 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,794; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,794 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2018/