$100 in 1942 is worth $182 in 1960,
because prices increased 81.6% over that period, an average of
3.37% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$182
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
81.6%
Average inflation rate
3.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$182
Price difference ($100 base)
$81.60
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1942 → 1960
$182
$100 in 1960 → 1942
$55.07
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1960
Between 1942 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 81.6%, which works out to an average of
3.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1960: the 1942 dollar
lost 44.9% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1960 at the same ratio, 1.82: $1,000 becomes
$1,816, and $10,000 becomes $18,160.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1960
$1.00
$1.82
$5.00
$9.08
$10.00
$18.16
$20.00
$36.32
$50.00
$90.80
$100
$182
$500
$908
$1,000
$1,816
$5,000
$9,080
$10,000
$18,160
$100,000
$181,595
$1,000,000
$1,815,951
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1960
Between 1942 and 1960, medical care rose the most, up 108.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 71.2%, against 81.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.37%
$182
Medical care
4.16%
$208
Food
3.77%
$195
Transportation
3.52%
$186
Apparel
3.03%
$171
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 1960
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1960 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1942, at end
1942–1950
5.01%
47.9%
$148
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$182
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $160 by
1951, on its way to $182 in 1960; 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 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $182; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1960: $100 is worth $182 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1960/