$100 in 1941 is worth $198 in 1959,
because prices increased 98.0% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$198
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
98.0%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$198
Price difference ($100 base)
$97.96
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1941 → 1959
$198
$100 in 1959 → 1941
$50.52
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1959
Between 1941 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 98.0%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1959: the 1941 dollar
lost 49.5% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1959 at the same ratio, 1.98: $1,000 becomes
$1,980, and $10,000 becomes $19,796.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1959
$1.00
$1.98
$5.00
$9.90
$10.00
$19.80
$20.00
$39.59
$50.00
$98.98
$100
$198
$500
$990
$1,000
$1,980
$5,000
$9,898
$10,000
$19,796
$100,000
$197,959
$1,000,000
$1,979,592
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1959
Between 1941 and 1959, food rose the most, up 126.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 97.4%, against 98.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$198
Food
4.65%
$227
Medical care
4.12%
$207
Transportation
4.00%
$203
Apparel
3.85%
$197
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 1959
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.65% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1959 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1941, at end
1941–1950
5.65%
63.9%
$164
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$198
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $164 by
1950, on its way to $198 in 1959; 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 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $198; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1959: $100 is worth $198 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1959/