$100 in 1942 is worth $183 in 1961,
because prices increased 83.4% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$183
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
83.4%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$183
Price difference ($100 base)
$83.44
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1942 → 1961
$183
$100 in 1961 → 1942
$54.52
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1961
Between 1942 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 83.4%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1961: the 1942 dollar
lost 45.5% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1961 at the same ratio, 1.83: $1,000 becomes
$1,834, and $10,000 becomes $18,344.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.83
$5.00
$9.17
$10.00
$18.34
$20.00
$36.69
$50.00
$91.72
$100
$183
$500
$917
$1,000
$1,834
$5,000
$9,172
$10,000
$18,344
$100,000
$183,436
$1,000,000
$1,834,356
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1961
Between 1942 and 1961, medical care rose the most, up 114.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 72.7%, against 83.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$183
Medical care
4.09%
$214
Food
3.64%
$197
Transportation
3.38%
$188
Apparel
2.92%
$173
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 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1961 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
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$183
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $160 by
1951, on its way to $183 in 1961; 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 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $183; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1961: $100 is worth $183 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1961/