$100 in 1941 is worth $366 in 1975,
because prices increased 266.0% over that period, an average of
3.89% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$366
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
266.0%
Average inflation rate
3.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$366
Price difference ($100 base)
$266
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1941 → 1975
$366
$100 in 1975 → 1941
$27.32
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1975
Between 1941 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 266.0%, which works out to an average of
3.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1975: the 1941 dollar
lost 72.7% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.66: $1,000 becomes
$3,660, and $10,000 becomes $36,599.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.66
$5.00
$18.30
$10.00
$36.60
$20.00
$73.20
$50.00
$183
$100
$366
$500
$1,830
$1,000
$3,660
$5,000
$18,299
$10,000
$36,599
$100,000
$365,986
$1,000,000
$3,659,864
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1975
Between 1941 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 356.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 218.0%, against 266.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.89%
$366
Medical care
4.57%
$457
Food
4.57%
$456
Transportation
3.67%
$341
Apparel
3.46%
$318
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$366
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $191 by
1957, on its way to $366 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $366; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1975: $100 is worth $366 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1975/