$100 in 1941 is worth $983 in 1993,
because prices increased 883.0% over that period, an average of
4.49% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$983
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
883.0%
Average inflation rate
4.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$983
Price difference ($100 base)
$883
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1941 → 1993
$983
$100 in 1993 → 1941
$10.17
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1993
Between 1941 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 883.0%, which works out to an average of
4.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1993: the 1941 dollar
lost 89.8% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1993 at the same ratio, 9.83: $1,000 becomes
$9,830, and $10,000 becomes $98,299.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1993
$1.00
$9.83
$5.00
$49.15
$10.00
$98.30
$20.00
$197
$50.00
$491
$100
$983
$500
$4,915
$1,000
$9,830
$5,000
$49,150
$10,000
$98,299
$100,000
$982,993
$1,000,000
$9,829,932
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1993
Between 1941 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 1836.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 486.4%, against 883.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.49%
$983
Medical care
5.86%
$1,937
Food
4.67%
$1,076
Transportation
4.29%
$887
Apparel
3.46%
$586
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 1993
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 1941–1993 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$889
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$983
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $227 by
1967, on its way to $983 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $983; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1993: $100 is worth $983 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1993/