$100 in 1941 is worth $1,739 in 2019,
because prices increased 1639.2% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$1,739
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1639.2%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,739
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,639
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1941 → 2019
$1,739
$100 in 2019 → 1941
$5.75
What happened to prices between 1941 and 2019
Between 1941 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1639.2%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2019: the 1941 dollar
lost 94.3% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2019 at the same ratio, 17.39: $1,000 becomes
$17,392, and $10,000 becomes $173,916.
Amount in 1941
Value in 2019
$1.00
$17.39
$5.00
$86.96
$10.00
$174
$20.00
$348
$50.00
$870
$100
$1,739
$500
$8,696
$1,000
$17,392
$5,000
$86,958
$10,000
$173,916
$100,000
$1,739,163
$1,000,000
$17,391,633
Inflation by spending category, 1941–2019
Between 1941 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 4692.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 444.1%, against 1639.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$1,739
Medical care
5.09%
$4,792
Food
3.90%
$1,972
Transportation
3.47%
$1,429
Apparel
2.20%
$544
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 2019
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 1941–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,739
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $618 by
1981, on its way to $1,739 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1941 had the buying
power of $1,739; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1941 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,739 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-2019/