$100 in 1941 is worth $1,109 in 1998,
because prices increased 1008.8% over that period, an average of
4.31% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,109
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1008.8%
Average inflation rate
4.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,109
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,009
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1941 → 1998
$1,109
$100 in 1998 → 1941
$9.02
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1998
Between 1941 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1008.8%, which works out to an average of
4.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1998: the 1941 dollar
lost 91.0% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1998 at the same ratio, 11.09: $1,000 becomes
$11,088, and $10,000 becomes $110,884.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1998
$1.00
$11.09
$5.00
$55.44
$10.00
$111
$20.00
$222
$50.00
$554
$100
$1,109
$500
$5,544
$1,000
$11,088
$5,000
$55,442
$10,000
$110,884
$100,000
$1,108,844
$1,000,000
$11,088,435
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1998
Between 1941 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 2227.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 483.3%, against 1008.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.31%
$1,109
Medical care
5.68%
$2,328
Food
4.50%
$1,227
Transportation
4.05%
$963
Apparel
3.14%
$583
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 1998
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 1941–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$1,109
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $250 by
1969, on its way to $1,109 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,109; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 1998: $100 is worth $1,109 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1998/