$100 in 1942 is worth $160 in 1951,
because prices increased 59.5% over that period, an average of
5.33% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$160
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
59.5%
Average inflation rate
5.33% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$160
Price difference ($100 base)
$59.51
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1942 → 1951
$160
$100 in 1951 → 1942
$62.69
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1951
Between 1942 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 59.5%, which works out to an average of
5.33% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1951: the 1942 dollar
lost 37.3% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.60: $1,000 becomes
$1,595, and $10,000 becomes $15,951.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.60
$5.00
$7.98
$10.00
$15.95
$20.00
$31.90
$50.00
$79.75
$100
$160
$500
$798
$1,000
$1,595
$5,000
$7,975
$10,000
$15,951
$100,000
$159,509
$1,000,000
$1,595,092
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1951
Between 1942 and 1951, food rose the most, up 83.1%, while medical care rose the least, up 48.6%, against 59.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.33%
$160
Food
6.95%
$183
Apparel
5.68%
$164
Transportation
4.66%
$151
Medical care
4.50%
$149
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–).
Decade by decade: 1942 to 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (5.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1942, at end
1942–1950
5.01%
47.9%
$148
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$160
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $120 by
1946, on its way to $160 in 1951; 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.
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $160; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1951: $100 is worth $160 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1951/