$100 in 1940 is worth $2,176 in 2023,
because prices increased 2076.4% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$2,176
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2076.4%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,176
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,076
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1940 → 2023
$2,176
$100 in 2023 → 1940
$4.59
What happened to prices between 1940 and 2023
Between 1940 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2076.4%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2023: the 1940 dollar
lost 95.4% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2023 at the same ratio, 21.76: $1,000 becomes
$21,764, and $10,000 becomes $217,644.
Amount in 1940
Value in 2023
$1.00
$21.76
$5.00
$109
$10.00
$218
$20.00
$435
$50.00
$1,088
$100
$2,176
$500
$10,882
$1,000
$21,764
$5,000
$108,822
$10,000
$217,644
$100,000
$2,176,443
$1,000,000
$21,764,429
Inflation by spending category, 1940–2023
Between 1940 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 5179.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 499.0%, against 2076.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$2,176
Medical care
4.89%
$5,280
Food
4.05%
$2,691
Transportation
3.60%
$1,880
Apparel
2.18%
$599
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 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,849
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$2,176
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $589 by
1980, on its way to $2,176 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $2,176; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 2023: $100 is worth $2,176 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-2023/