$100 in 1942 is worth $179 in 1959,
because prices increased 78.5% over that period, an average of
3.47% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$179
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
78.5%
Average inflation rate
3.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$179
Price difference ($100 base)
$78.53
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1942 → 1959
$179
$100 in 1959 → 1942
$56.01
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1959
Between 1942 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 78.5%, which works out to an average of
3.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1959: the 1942 dollar
lost 44.0% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1959 at the same ratio, 1.79: $1,000 becomes
$1,785, and $10,000 becomes $17,853.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1959
$1.00
$1.79
$5.00
$8.93
$10.00
$17.85
$20.00
$35.71
$50.00
$89.26
$100
$179
$500
$893
$1,000
$1,785
$5,000
$8,926
$10,000
$17,853
$100,000
$178,528
$1,000,000
$1,785,276
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1959
Between 1942 and 1959, medical care rose the most, up 100.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 68.5%, against 78.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.47%
$179
Medical care
4.19%
$201
Food
3.94%
$193
Transportation
3.73%
$186
Apparel
3.12%
$169
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 1959
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1959 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1942, at end
1942–1950
5.01%
47.9%
$148
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$179
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $148 by
1950, on its way to $179 in 1959; 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 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $179; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1959: $100 is worth $179 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1959/