$100 in 1941 is worth $284 in 1972,
because prices increased 184.4% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$284
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
184.4%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$284
Price difference ($100 base)
$184
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1941 → 1972
$284
$100 in 1972 → 1941
$35.17
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1972
Between 1941 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 184.4%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1972: the 1941 dollar
lost 64.8% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1972 at the same ratio, 2.84: $1,000 becomes
$2,844, and $10,000 becomes $28,435.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.84
$5.00
$14.22
$10.00
$28.44
$20.00
$56.87
$50.00
$142
$100
$284
$500
$1,422
$1,000
$2,844
$5,000
$14,218
$10,000
$28,435
$100,000
$284,354
$1,000,000
$2,843,537
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1972
Between 1941 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 258.7%, while transportation rose the least, up 171.4%, against 184.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$284
Medical care
4.21%
$359
Food
3.84%
$321
Apparel
3.30%
$273
Transportation
3.27%
$271
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 1972
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 1941–1972 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
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$284
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $191 by
1957, on its way to $284 in 1972; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $284; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1972: $100 is worth $284 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1972/