$100 in 1942 is worth $188 in 1963,
because prices increased 87.7% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$188
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
87.7%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$188
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.73
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1942 → 1963
$188
$100 in 1963 → 1942
$53.27
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1963
Between 1942 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 87.7%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1963: the 1942 dollar
lost 46.7% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1963 at the same ratio, 1.88: $1,000 becomes
$1,877, and $10,000 becomes $18,773.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.88
$5.00
$9.39
$10.00
$18.77
$20.00
$37.55
$50.00
$93.87
$100
$188
$500
$939
$1,000
$1,877
$5,000
$9,387
$10,000
$18,773
$100,000
$187,730
$1,000,000
$1,877,301
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1963
Between 1942 and 1963, medical care rose the most, up 125.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 75.7%, against 87.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$188
Medical care
3.94%
$225
Food
3.40%
$202
Transportation
3.18%
$193
Apparel
2.72%
$176
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 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.11% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1963 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
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$188
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $163 by
1952, on its way to $188 in 1963; 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 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $188; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1963: $100 is worth $188 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1963/