$100 in 1941 is worth $205 in 1962,
because prices increased 105.4% over that period, an average of
3.49% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
105.4%
Average inflation rate
3.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1941 → 1962
$205
$100 in 1962 → 1941
$48.68
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1962
Between 1941 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 105.4%, which works out to an average of
3.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1962: the 1941 dollar
lost 51.3% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1962 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,054, and $10,000 becomes $20,544.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1962
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.27
$10.00
$20.54
$20.00
$41.09
$50.00
$103
$100
$205
$500
$1,027
$1,000
$2,054
$5,000
$10,272
$10,000
$20,544
$100,000
$205,442
$1,000,000
$2,054,422
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1962
Between 1941 and 1962, food rose the most, up 133.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 103.1%, against 105.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.49%
$205
Food
4.12%
$234
Medical care
3.96%
$226
Transportation
3.58%
$210
Apparel
3.43%
$203
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 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.65% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1941, at end
1941–1950
5.65%
63.9%
$164
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$201
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$205
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $177 by
1951, on its way to $205 in 1962; 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 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $205; the year's average CPI of 30.2 is the level
behind every 1962 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1962, matching 1961’s pace as
inflation stayed remarkably low and unemployment slowly declined from its
recession-era highs. That January, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers
introduced “wage-price guideposts,” non-binding targets meant to keep pay
and price increases in line with productivity growth without formal
controls. The space race delivered a milestone that February, when John
Glenn’s Friendship 7 capsule circled Earth three times, making him the
first American to orbit the planet. Markets got a scare that spring: a
dispute over U.S. Steel’s April price increase, which Kennedy publicly
pressured the company into rolling back, rattled investors, and the Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell about 5.7% on May 28, its steepest one-day
drop since the 1929 crash. The year’s gravest moment came that October,
when American reconnaissance photographed Soviet nuclear missiles in
Cuba, setting off a 13-day standoff that brought the two superpowers
closer to nuclear war than at any other point in the Cold War before the
Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge
not to invade the island. Consumer prices finished 1962 205.1% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.15 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1962: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1962/