$100 in 1941 is worth $1,708 in 2018,
because prices increased 1608.2% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,708
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1608.2%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,708
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,608
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1941 → 2018
$1,708
$100 in 2018 → 1941
$5.85
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2018
Between 1941 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1608.2%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2018: the 1941 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2018 at the same ratio, 17.08: $1,000 becomes
$17,082, and $10,000 becomes $170,821.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2018
$1.00
$17.08
$5.00
$85.41
$10.00
$171
$20.00
$342
$50.00
$854
$100
$1,708
$500
$8,541
$1,000
$17,082
$5,000
$85,411
$10,000
$170,821
$100,000
$1,708,211
$1,000,000
$17,082,109
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2018
Between 1941 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 4560.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 451.1%, against 1608.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$1,708
Medical care
5.12%
$4,661
Food
3.92%
$1,936
Transportation
3.52%
$1,433
Apparel
2.24%
$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 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,708
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $618 by
1981, on its way to $1,708 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,708; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,708 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2018/