$100 in 1941 is worth $185 in 1956,
because prices increased 85.0% over that period, an average of
4.19% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$185
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
85.0%
Average inflation rate
4.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$185
Price difference ($100 base)
$85.03
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1941 → 1956
$185
$100 in 1956 → 1941
$54.04
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1956
Between 1941 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 85.0%, which works out to an average of
4.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1956: the 1941 dollar
lost 46.0% of its purchasing power over
these 15 years.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1941 amount converts to 1956 at the same ratio, 1.85: $1,000 becomes
$1,850, and $10,000 becomes $18,503.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.85
$5.00
$9.25
$10.00
$18.50
$20.00
$37.01
$50.00
$92.52
$100
$185
$500
$925
$1,000
$1,850
$5,000
$9,252
$10,000
$18,503
$100,000
$185,034
$1,000,000
$1,850,340
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1956
Between 1941 and 1956, food rose the most, up 113.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 78.2%, against 85.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.19%
$185
Food
5.19%
$214
Apparel
4.43%
$192
Medical care
4.06%
$182
Transportation
3.93%
$178
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1941: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1941 to 1956
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.65% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.04% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1956 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1941, at end
1941–1950
5.65%
63.9%
$164
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$185
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $164 by
1948, on its way to $185 in 1956; 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.
In 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $185; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1956: $100 is worth $185 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1956/