$100 in 1941 is worth $1,633 in 2016,
because prices increased 1532.7% over that period, an average of
3.79% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,633
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1532.7%
Average inflation rate
3.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,633
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,533
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1941 → 2016
$1,633
$100 in 2016 → 1941
$6.12
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2016
Between 1941 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1532.7%, which works out to an average of
3.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2016: the 1941 dollar
lost 93.9% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 2016 at the same ratio, 16.33: $1,000 becomes
$16,327, and $10,000 becomes $163,270.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2016
$1.00
$16.33
$5.00
$81.64
$10.00
$163
$20.00
$327
$50.00
$816
$100
$1,633
$500
$8,164
$1,000
$16,327
$5,000
$81,635
$10,000
$163,270
$100,000
$1,632,701
$1,000,000
$16,327,007
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2016
Between 1941 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 4358.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 452.8%, against 1532.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.79%
$1,633
Medical care
5.19%
$4,458
Food
4.00%
$1,893
Transportation
3.51%
$1,326
Apparel
2.31%
$553
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 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,633
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $387 by
1976, on its way to $1,633 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,633; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,633 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2016/