$100 in 1941 is worth $1,483 in 2010,
because prices increased 1383.4% over that period, an average of
3.99% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,483
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1383.4%
Average inflation rate
3.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,483
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,383
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1941 → 2010
$1,483
$100 in 2010 → 1941
$6.74
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2010
Between 1941 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1383.4%, which works out to an average of
3.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2010: the 1941 dollar
lost 93.3% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2010 at the same ratio, 14.83: $1,000 becomes
$14,834, and $10,000 becomes $148,337.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2010
$1.00
$14.83
$5.00
$74.17
$10.00
$148
$20.00
$297
$50.00
$742
$100
$1,483
$500
$7,417
$1,000
$14,834
$5,000
$74,169
$10,000
$148,337
$100,000
$1,483,374
$1,000,000
$14,833,741
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2010
Between 1941 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 3635.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 424.1%, against 1383.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.99%
$1,483
Medical care
5.39%
$3,735
Food
4.17%
$1,677
Transportation
3.81%
$1,316
Apparel
2.43%
$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 2010
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 1941–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,483
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $387 by
1976, on its way to $1,483 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,483; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,483 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2010/