$100 in 1940 is worth $1,826 in 2019,
because prices increased 1726.1% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,826
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1726.1%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,826
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,726
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1940 → 2019
$1,826
$100 in 2019 → 1940
$5.48
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2019
Between 1940 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1726.1%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2019: the 1940 dollar
lost 94.5% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 2019 at the same ratio, 18.26: $1,000 becomes
$18,261, and $10,000 becomes $182,612.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2019
$1.00
$18.26
$5.00
$91.31
$10.00
$183
$20.00
$365
$50.00
$913
$100
$1,826
$500
$9,131
$1,000
$18,261
$5,000
$91,306
$10,000
$182,612
$100,000
$1,826,121
$1,000,000
$18,261,214
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2019
Between 1940 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 4692.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 469.0%, against 1726.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$1,826
Medical care
5.02%
$4,792
Food
3.96%
$2,153
Transportation
3.47%
$1,479
Apparel
2.23%
$569
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 2019
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 1940–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,826
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $589 by
1980, on its way to $1,826 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,826; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,826 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2019/