$100 in 1941 is worth $1,562 in 2012,
because prices increased 1461.9% over that period, an average of
3.95% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,562
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1461.9%
Average inflation rate
3.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,562
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,462
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1941 → 2012
$1,562
$100 in 2012 → 1941
$6.40
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2012
Between 1941 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1461.9%, which works out to an average of
3.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2012: the 1941 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 2012 at the same ratio, 15.62: $1,000 becomes
$15,619, and $10,000 becomes $156,186.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2012
$1.00
$15.62
$5.00
$78.09
$10.00
$156
$20.00
$312
$50.00
$781
$100
$1,562
$500
$7,809
$1,000
$15,619
$5,000
$78,093
$10,000
$156,186
$100,000
$1,561,864
$1,000,000
$15,618,639
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2012
Between 1941 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 3889.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 453.8%, against 1461.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.95%
$1,562
Medical care
5.33%
$3,990
Food
4.14%
$1,785
Transportation
3.87%
$1,478
Apparel
2.44%
$554
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 2012
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 1941–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,562
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $387 by
1976, on its way to $1,562 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,562; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,562 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2012/