$100 in 1942 is worth $164 in 1953,
because prices increased 63.8% over that period, an average of
4.59% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$164
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
63.8%
Average inflation rate
4.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$164
Price difference ($100 base)
$63.80
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1942 → 1953
$164
$100 in 1953 → 1942
$61.05
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1953
Between 1942 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 63.8%, which works out to an average of
4.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1953: the 1942 dollar
lost 39.0% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.64: $1,000 becomes
$1,638, and $10,000 becomes $16,380.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.64
$5.00
$8.19
$10.00
$16.38
$20.00
$32.76
$50.00
$81.90
$100
$164
$500
$819
$1,000
$1,638
$5,000
$8,190
$10,000
$16,380
$100,000
$163,804
$1,000,000
$1,638,037
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1953
Between 1942 and 1953, food rose the most, up 83.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.4%, against 63.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.59%
$164
Food
5.69%
$184
Transportation
4.69%
$166
Medical care
4.46%
$162
Apparel
4.45%
$161
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 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (3.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1953 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1942, at end
1942–1950
5.01%
47.9%
$148
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$164
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $137 by
1947, on its way to $164 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $164; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $164 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1953/