$100 in 1941 is worth $1,610 in 2014,
because prices increased 1510.4% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,610
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1510.4%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,610
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,510
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1941 → 2014
$1,610
$100 in 2014 → 1941
$6.21
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2014
Between 1941 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1510.4%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2014: the 1941 dollar
lost 93.8% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 2014 at the same ratio, 16.10: $1,000 becomes
$16,104, and $10,000 becomes $161,045.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2014
$1.00
$16.10
$5.00
$80.52
$10.00
$161
$20.00
$322
$50.00
$805
$100
$1,610
$500
$8,052
$1,000
$16,104
$5,000
$80,522
$10,000
$161,045
$100,000
$1,610,449
$1,000,000
$16,104,490
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2014
Between 1941 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 4085.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 459.3%, against 1510.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$1,610
Medical care
5.25%
$4,186
Food
4.08%
$1,853
Transportation
3.75%
$1,469
Apparel
2.39%
$559
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 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,610
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $387 by
1976, on its way to $1,610 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,610; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,610 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2014/