$100 in 1941 is worth $1,252 in 2003,
because prices increased 1151.7% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,252
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1151.7%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,252
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,152
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1941 → 2003
$1,252
$100 in 2003 → 1941
$7.99
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2003
Between 1941 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1151.7%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2003: the 1941 dollar
lost 92.0% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2003 at the same ratio, 12.52: $1,000 becomes
$12,517, and $10,000 becomes $125,170.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2003
$1.00
$12.52
$5.00
$62.59
$10.00
$125
$20.00
$250
$50.00
$626
$100
$1,252
$500
$6,259
$1,000
$12,517
$5,000
$62,585
$10,000
$125,170
$100,000
$1,251,701
$1,000,000
$12,517,007
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2003
Between 1941 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 2756.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 430.3%, against 1151.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$1,252
Medical care
5.56%
$2,857
Food
4.32%
$1,374
Transportation
3.90%
$1,072
Apparel
2.73%
$530
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 2003
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 1941–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,252
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $276 by
1971, on its way to $1,252 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,252; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,252 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2003/