$100 in 1942 is worth $190 in 1964,
because prices increased 90.2% over that period, an average of
2.97% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$190
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
90.2%
Average inflation rate
2.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$190
Price difference ($100 base)
$90.18
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1942 → 1964
$190
$100 in 1964 → 1942
$52.58
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1964
Between 1942 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 90.2%, which works out to an average of
2.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1964: the 1942 dollar
lost 47.4% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1964 at the same ratio, 1.90: $1,000 becomes
$1,902, and $10,000 becomes $19,018.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.90
$5.00
$9.51
$10.00
$19.02
$20.00
$38.04
$50.00
$95.09
$100
$190
$500
$951
$1,000
$1,902
$5,000
$9,509
$10,000
$19,018
$100,000
$190,184
$1,000,000
$1,901,840
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1964
Between 1942 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 129.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 77.2%, against 90.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.97%
$190
Medical care
3.86%
$230
Food
3.31%
$205
Transportation
3.11%
$196
Apparel
2.63%
$177
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 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.16% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1964 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
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$190
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $164 by
1953, on its way to $190 in 1964; 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 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $190; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1964: $100 is worth $190 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1964/