$100 in 1942 is worth $172 in 1957,
because prices increased 72.4% over that period, an average of
3.70% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$172
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
72.4%
Average inflation rate
3.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$172
Price difference ($100 base)
$72.39
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1942 → 1957
$172
$100 in 1957 → 1942
$58.01
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1957
Between 1942 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 72.4%, which works out to an average of
3.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1957: the 1942 dollar
lost 42.0% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.72: $1,000 becomes
$1,724, and $10,000 becomes $17,239.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.72
$5.00
$8.62
$10.00
$17.24
$20.00
$34.48
$50.00
$86.20
$100
$172
$500
$862
$1,000
$1,724
$5,000
$8,620
$10,000
$17,239
$100,000
$172,393
$1,000,000
$1,723,926
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1957
Between 1942 and 1957, food rose the most, up 87.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 66.7%, against 72.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.70%
$172
Food
4.29%
$188
Medical care
4.15%
$184
Transportation
3.73%
$173
Apparel
3.46%
$167
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 1957
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.22% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1957 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1942, at end
1942–1950
5.01%
47.9%
$148
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$172
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $146 by
1949, on its way to $172 in 1957; 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 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $172; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1957: $100 is worth $172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1957/