$100 in 1941 is worth $1,224 in 2002,
because prices increased 1123.8% over that period, an average of
4.19% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,224
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1123.8%
Average inflation rate
4.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,224
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,124
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1941 → 2002
$1,224
$100 in 2002 → 1941
$8.17
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2002
Between 1941 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1123.8%, which works out to an average of
4.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2002: the 1941 dollar
lost 91.8% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 2002 at the same ratio, 12.24: $1,000 becomes
$12,238, and $10,000 becomes $122,381.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2002
$1.00
$12.24
$5.00
$61.19
$10.00
$122
$20.00
$245
$50.00
$612
$100
$1,224
$500
$6,119
$1,000
$12,238
$5,000
$61,190
$10,000
$122,381
$100,000
$1,223,810
$1,000,000
$12,238,095
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2002
Between 1941 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 2646.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 443.9%, against 1123.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.19%
$1,224
Medical care
5.58%
$2,746
Food
4.35%
$1,345
Transportation
3.91%
$1,040
Apparel
2.82%
$544
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 2002
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 1941–2002 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,171
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,224
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $276 by
1971, on its way to $1,224 in 2002; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,224; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,224 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2002/