$100 in 1942 is worth $110 in 1945,
because prices increased 10.4% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$110
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.4%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$110
Price difference ($100 base)
$10.43
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1942 → 1945
$110
$100 in 1945 → 1942
$90.56
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1945
Between 1942 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.4%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.91 buys in 1945: the 1942 dollar
lost 9.4% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.10: $1,000 becomes
$1,104, and $10,000 becomes $11,043.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.10
$5.00
$5.52
$10.00
$11.04
$20.00
$22.09
$50.00
$55.21
$100
$110
$500
$552
$1,000
$1,104
$5,000
$5,521
$10,000
$11,043
$100,000
$110,429
$1,000,000
$1,104,294
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1945
Between 1942 and 1945, apparel rose the most, up 17.6%, while transportation fell 0.6%, against 10.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$110
Apparel
5.55%
$118
Food
3.95%
$112
Medical care
3.61%
$111
Transportation
-0.21%
$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 $110 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $110; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1945: $100 is worth $110 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1945/