$100 in 1942 is worth $137 in 1947,
because prices increased 36.8% over that period, an average of
6.47% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$137
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
36.8%
Average inflation rate
6.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$137
Price difference ($100 base)
$36.81
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1942 → 1947
$137
$100 in 1947 → 1942
$73.09
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1947
Between 1942 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 36.8%, which works out to an average of
6.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1947: the 1942 dollar
lost 26.9% of its purchasing power over
these 5 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.37: $1,000 becomes
$1,368, and $10,000 becomes $13,681.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.37
$5.00
$6.84
$10.00
$13.68
$20.00
$27.36
$50.00
$68.40
$100
$137
$500
$684
$1,000
$1,368
$5,000
$6,840
$10,000
$13,681
$100,000
$136,810
$1,000,000
$1,368,098
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1947
Between 1942 and 1947, food rose the most, up 56.5%, while transportation rose the least, up 15.6%, against 36.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.47%
$137
Food
9.37%
$156
Apparel
8.37%
$149
Medical care
4.76%
$126
Transportation
2.95%
$116
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 $137 in 1947; 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 the smallest rise was 1.7% in 1944.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $137; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1947: $100 is worth $137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1947/