$100 in 1941 is worth $561 in 1980,
because prices increased 460.5% over that period, an average of
4.52% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$561
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
460.5%
Average inflation rate
4.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$561
Price difference ($100 base)
$461
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1941 → 1980
$561
$100 in 1980 → 1941
$17.84
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1980
Between 1941 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 460.5%, which works out to an average of
4.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1980: the 1941 dollar
lost 82.2% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1980 at the same ratio, 5.61: $1,000 becomes
$5,605, and $10,000 becomes $56,054.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1980
$1.00
$5.61
$5.00
$28.03
$10.00
$56.05
$20.00
$112
$50.00
$280
$100
$561
$500
$2,803
$1,000
$5,605
$5,000
$28,027
$10,000
$56,054
$100,000
$560,544
$1,000,000
$5,605,442
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1980
Between 1941 and 1980, medical care rose the most, up 620.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 298.7%, against 460.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.52%
$561
Medical care
5.19%
$720
Food
4.97%
$663
Transportation
4.54%
$565
Apparel
3.61%
$399
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 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$561
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $203 by
1961, on its way to $561 in 1980; 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: 1980
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $561; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1980: $100 is worth $561 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1980/