$100 in 1941 is worth $276 in 1971,
because prices increased 175.5% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$276
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
175.5%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$276
Price difference ($100 base)
$176
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1941 → 1971
$276
$100 in 1971 → 1941
$36.30
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1971
Between 1941 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 175.5%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1971: the 1941 dollar
lost 63.7% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.76: $1,000 becomes
$2,755, and $10,000 becomes $27,551.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.76
$5.00
$13.78
$10.00
$27.55
$20.00
$55.10
$50.00
$138
$100
$276
$500
$1,378
$1,000
$2,755
$5,000
$13,776
$10,000
$27,551
$100,000
$275,510
$1,000,000
$2,755,102
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1971
Between 1941 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 247.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 168.0%, against 175.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$276
Medical care
4.24%
$347
Food
3.83%
$308
Transportation
3.35%
$269
Apparel
3.34%
$268
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 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.65% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$264
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$276
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $185 by
1956, on its way to $276 in 1971; 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 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $276; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1971: $100 is worth $276 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1971/