$100 in 1942 is worth $108 in 1944,
because prices increased 8.0% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$108
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.0%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$108
Price difference ($100 base)
$7.98
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1942 → 1944
$108
$100 in 1944 → 1942
$92.61
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1944
Between 1942 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.0%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1944: the 1942 dollar
lost 7.4% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1942 amount converts to 1944 at the same ratio, 1.08: $1,000 becomes
$1,080, and $10,000 becomes $10,798.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.08
$5.00
$5.40
$10.00
$10.80
$20.00
$21.60
$50.00
$53.99
$100
$108
$500
$540
$1,000
$1,080
$5,000
$5,399
$10,000
$10,798
$100,000
$107,975
$1,000,000
$1,079,755
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1944
Between 1942 and 1944, apparel rose the most, up 11.6%, while transportation fell 0.6%, against 8.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$108
Apparel
5.65%
$112
Food
4.76%
$110
Medical care
4.12%
$108
Transportation
-0.31%
$99.38
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1942: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $106 by
1943, on its way to $108 in 1944; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.1% in 1943, and the smallest rise was 1.7% in 1944.
In 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $108; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1944: $100 is worth $108 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1944/