$100 in 1941 is worth $1,667 in 2017,
because prices increased 1567.5% over that period, an average of
3.77% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,667
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1567.5%
Average inflation rate
3.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,667
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,567
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1941 → 2017
$1,667
$100 in 2017 → 1941
$6.00
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2017
Between 1941 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1567.5%, which works out to an average of
3.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2017: the 1941 dollar
lost 94.0% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2017 at the same ratio, 16.67: $1,000 becomes
$16,675, and $10,000 becomes $166,748.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2017
$1.00
$16.67
$5.00
$83.37
$10.00
$167
$20.00
$333
$50.00
$834
$100
$1,667
$500
$8,337
$1,000
$16,675
$5,000
$83,374
$10,000
$166,748
$100,000
$1,667,483
$1,000,000
$16,674,830
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2017
Between 1941 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 4470.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 450.9%, against 1567.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.77%
$1,667
Medical care
5.16%
$4,570
Food
3.96%
$1,909
Transportation
3.51%
$1,371
Apparel
2.27%
$551
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 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,667
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $618 by
1981, on its way to $1,667 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,667; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,667 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2017/