$100 in 1941 is worth $335 in 1974,
because prices increased 235.4% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$335
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
235.4%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$335
Price difference ($100 base)
$235
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1941 → 1974
$335
$100 in 1974 → 1941
$29.82
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1974
Between 1941 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 235.4%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1974: the 1941 dollar
lost 70.2% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1974 at the same ratio, 3.35: $1,000 becomes
$3,354, and $10,000 becomes $33,537.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1974
$1.00
$3.35
$5.00
$16.77
$10.00
$33.54
$20.00
$67.07
$50.00
$168
$100
$335
$500
$1,677
$1,000
$3,354
$5,000
$16,769
$10,000
$33,537
$100,000
$335,374
$1,000,000
$3,353,741
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1974
Between 1941 and 1974, food rose the most, up 320.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 204.4%, against 235.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$335
Food
4.45%
$421
Medical care
4.35%
$408
Transportation
3.50%
$312
Apparel
3.43%
$304
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$335
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $191 by
1957, on its way to $335 in 1974; 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: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $335; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1974: $100 is worth $335 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1974/