$100 in 1941 is worth $773 in 1987,
because prices increased 672.8% over that period, an average of
4.55% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$773
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
672.8%
Average inflation rate
4.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$773
Price difference ($100 base)
$673
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1941 → 1987
$773
$100 in 1987 → 1941
$12.94
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1987
Between 1941 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 672.8%, which works out to an average of
4.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1987: the 1941 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1987 at the same ratio, 7.73: $1,000 becomes
$7,728, and $10,000 becomes $77,279.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1987
$1.00
$7.73
$5.00
$38.64
$10.00
$77.28
$20.00
$155
$50.00
$386
$100
$773
$500
$3,864
$1,000
$7,728
$5,000
$38,639
$10,000
$77,279
$100,000
$772,789
$1,000,000
$7,727,891
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1987
Between 1941 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 1151.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 385.1%, against 672.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.55%
$773
Medical care
5.65%
$1,251
Food
4.81%
$866
Transportation
4.38%
$717
Apparel
3.49%
$485
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 1987
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 1941–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$773
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $208 by
1963, on its way to $773 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $773; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1987: $100 is worth $773 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1987/