$100 in 1942 is worth $167 in 1956,
because prices increased 66.9% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$167
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
66.9%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$167
Price difference ($100 base)
$66.87
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1942 → 1956
$167
$100 in 1956 → 1942
$59.93
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1956
Between 1942 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 66.9%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1956: the 1942 dollar
lost 40.1% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.67: $1,000 becomes
$1,669, and $10,000 becomes $16,687.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.67
$5.00
$8.34
$10.00
$16.69
$20.00
$33.37
$50.00
$83.44
$100
$167
$500
$834
$1,000
$1,669
$5,000
$8,344
$10,000
$16,687
$100,000
$166,871
$1,000,000
$1,668,712
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1956
Between 1942 and 1956, food rose the most, up 81.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.7%, against 66.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$167
Food
4.36%
$182
Medical care
4.15%
$177
Transportation
3.59%
$164
Apparel
3.58%
$164
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 1956
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.04% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1956 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1942, at end
1942–1950
5.01%
47.9%
$148
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$167
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $146 by
1949, on its way to $167 in 1956; 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 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $167; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1956: $100 is worth $167 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1956/