$100 in 1941 is worth $237 in 1968,
because prices increased 136.7% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$237
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
136.7%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$237
Price difference ($100 base)
$137
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1941 → 1968
$237
$100 in 1968 → 1941
$42.24
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1968
Between 1941 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 136.7%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1968: the 1941 dollar
lost 57.8% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1968 at the same ratio, 2.37: $1,000 becomes
$2,367, and $10,000 becomes $23,673.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1968
$1.00
$2.37
$5.00
$11.84
$10.00
$23.67
$20.00
$47.35
$50.00
$118
$100
$237
$500
$1,184
$1,000
$2,367
$5,000
$11,837
$10,000
$23,673
$100,000
$236,735
$1,000,000
$2,367,347
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1968
Between 1941 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 187.5%, while transportation rose the least, up 133.3%, against 136.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$237
Medical care
3.99%
$287
Food
3.74%
$269
Apparel
3.22%
$236
Transportation
3.19%
$233
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 1968
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.65% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.04% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$237
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $183 by
1954, on its way to $237 in 1968; 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 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $237; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1968: $100 is worth $237 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1968/