$100 in 1941 is worth $1,612 in 2015,
because prices increased 1512.4% over that period, an average of
3.83% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,612
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1512.4%
Average inflation rate
3.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,612
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,512
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1941 → 2015
$1,612
$100 in 2015 → 1941
$6.20
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2015
Between 1941 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1512.4%, which works out to an average of
3.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2015: the 1941 dollar
lost 93.8% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2015 at the same ratio, 16.12: $1,000 becomes
$16,124, and $10,000 becomes $161,236.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2015
$1.00
$16.12
$5.00
$80.62
$10.00
$161
$20.00
$322
$50.00
$806
$100
$1,612
$500
$8,062
$1,000
$16,124
$5,000
$80,618
$10,000
$161,236
$100,000
$1,612,361
$1,000,000
$16,123,605
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2015
Between 1941 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 4195.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 452.2%, against 1512.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.83%
$1,612
Medical care
5.21%
$4,296
Food
4.05%
$1,887
Transportation
3.58%
$1,354
Apparel
2.34%
$552
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 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,612
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $387 by
1976, on its way to $1,612 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,612; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,612 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2015/