$100 in 1942 is worth $120 in 1946,
because prices increased 19.6% over that period, an average of
4.58% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$120
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.6%
Average inflation rate
4.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$120
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.63
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1942 → 1946
$120
$100 in 1946 → 1942
$83.59
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1946
Between 1942 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.6%, which works out to an average of
4.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.84 buys in 1946: the 1942 dollar
lost 16.4% of its purchasing power over
these 4 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.20: $1,000 becomes
$1,196, and $10,000 becomes $11,963.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.20
$5.00
$5.98
$10.00
$11.96
$20.00
$23.93
$50.00
$59.82
$100
$120
$500
$598
$1,000
$1,196
$5,000
$5,982
$10,000
$11,963
$100,000
$119,632
$1,000,000
$1,196,319
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1946
Between 1942 and 1946, apparel rose the most, up 28.8%, while transportation rose the least, up 4.4%, against 19.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.58%
$120
Apparel
6.54%
$129
Food
6.48%
$129
Medical care
3.96%
$117
Transportation
1.08%
$104
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 $108 by
1944, on its way to $120 in 1946; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 8.3% in 1946, and the smallest rise was 1.7% in 1944.
In 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $120; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1946: $100 is worth $120 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1946/