$100 in 1941 is worth $208 in 1963,
because prices increased 108.2% over that period, an average of
3.39% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$208
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
108.2%
Average inflation rate
3.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$208
Price difference ($100 base)
$108
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1941 → 1963
$208
$100 in 1963 → 1941
$48.04
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1963
Between 1941 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 108.2%, which works out to an average of
3.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1963: the 1941 dollar
lost 52.0% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1963 at the same ratio, 2.08: $1,000 becomes
$2,082, and $10,000 becomes $20,816.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.08
$5.00
$10.41
$10.00
$20.82
$20.00
$41.63
$50.00
$104
$100
$208
$500
$1,041
$1,000
$2,082
$5,000
$10,408
$10,000
$20,816
$100,000
$208,163
$1,000,000
$2,081,633
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1963
Between 1941 and 1963, food rose the most, up 137.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 105.7%, against 108.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.39%
$208
Food
4.01%
$237
Medical care
3.89%
$232
Transportation
3.43%
$210
Apparel
3.33%
$206
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 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.65% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.11% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1963 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
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$208
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $180 by
1952, on its way to $208 in 1963; 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 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $208; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1963: $100 is worth $208 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1963/