$100 in 1941 is worth $214 in 1965,
because prices increased 114.3% over that period, an average of
3.23% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$214
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
114.3%
Average inflation rate
3.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$214
Price difference ($100 base)
$114
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1941 → 1965
$214
$100 in 1965 → 1941
$46.67
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1965
Between 1941 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 114.3%, which works out to an average of
3.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1965: the 1941 dollar
lost 53.3% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1965 at the same ratio, 2.14: $1,000 becomes
$2,143, and $10,000 becomes $21,429.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1965
$1.00
$2.14
$5.00
$10.71
$10.00
$21.43
$20.00
$42.86
$50.00
$107
$100
$214
$500
$1,071
$1,000
$2,143
$5,000
$10,714
$10,000
$21,429
$100,000
$214,286
$1,000,000
$2,142,857
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1965
Between 1941 and 1965, food rose the most, up 145.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 109.6%, against 114.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.23%
$214
Food
3.82%
$246
Medical care
3.76%
$242
Transportation
3.28%
$217
Apparel
3.13%
$210
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 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.65% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.25% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$214
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $182 by
1953, on its way to $214 in 1965; 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 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $214; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1965: $100 is worth $214 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1965/