$100 in 1941 is worth $197 in 1958,
because prices increased 96.6% over that period, an average of
4.06% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$197
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
96.6%
Average inflation rate
4.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$197
Price difference ($100 base)
$96.60
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1941 → 1958
$197
$100 in 1958 → 1941
$50.87
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1958
Between 1941 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 96.6%, which works out to an average of
4.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1958: the 1941 dollar
lost 49.1% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.97: $1,000 becomes
$1,966, and $10,000 becomes $19,660.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.97
$5.00
$9.83
$10.00
$19.66
$20.00
$39.32
$50.00
$98.30
$100
$197
$500
$983
$1,000
$1,966
$5,000
$9,830
$10,000
$19,660
$100,000
$196,599
$1,000,000
$1,965,986
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1958
Between 1941 and 1958, food rose the most, up 130.5%, while transportation rose the least, up 94.6%, against 96.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.06%
$197
Food
5.04%
$231
Medical care
4.10%
$198
Apparel
4.03%
$196
Transportation
3.99%
$195
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 1958
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.65% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.30% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1958 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1941, at end
1941–1950
5.65%
63.9%
$164
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$197
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $162 by
1949, on its way to $197 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $197; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1958: $100 is worth $197 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1958/