$100 in 1942 is worth $193 in 1965,
because prices increased 93.3% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$193
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
93.3%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$193
Price difference ($100 base)
$93.25
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1942 → 1965
$193
$100 in 1965 → 1942
$51.75
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1965
Between 1942 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 93.3%, which works out to an average of
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1965: the 1942 dollar
lost 48.3% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1965 at the same ratio, 1.93: $1,000 becomes
$1,933, and $10,000 becomes $19,325.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.93
$5.00
$9.66
$10.00
$19.33
$20.00
$38.65
$50.00
$96.63
$100
$193
$500
$966
$1,000
$1,933
$5,000
$9,663
$10,000
$19,325
$100,000
$193,252
$1,000,000
$1,932,515
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1965
Between 1942 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 135.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 79.0%, against 93.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$193
Medical care
3.79%
$236
Food
3.26%
$209
Transportation
3.05%
$199
Apparel
2.56%
$179
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 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.25% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$193
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $164 by
1953, on its way to $193 in 1965; 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 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $193; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% 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 1965: $100 is worth $193 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1965/