$100 in 1941 is worth $1,329 in 2005,
because prices increased 1228.6% over that period, an average of
4.12% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,329
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1228.6%
Average inflation rate
4.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,329
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,229
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1941 → 2005
$1,329
$100 in 2005 → 1941
$7.53
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2005
Between 1941 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1228.6%, which works out to an average of
4.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2005: the 1941 dollar
lost 92.5% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2005 at the same ratio, 13.29: $1,000 becomes
$13,286, and $10,000 becomes $132,857.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2005
$1.00
$13.29
$5.00
$66.43
$10.00
$133
$20.00
$266
$50.00
$664
$100
$1,329
$500
$6,643
$1,000
$13,286
$5,000
$66,429
$10,000
$132,857
$100,000
$1,328,571
$1,000,000
$13,285,714
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2005
Between 1941 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 3007.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 424.1%, against 1228.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.12%
$1,329
Medical care
5.52%
$3,108
Food
4.27%
$1,456
Transportation
3.94%
$1,183
Apparel
2.62%
$524
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 2005
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 1941–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,329
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $276 by
1971, on its way to $1,329 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,329; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,329 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2005/