$100 in 1942 is worth $205 in 1967,
because prices increased 104.9% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
104.9%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1942 → 1967
$205
$100 in 1967 → 1942
$48.80
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1967
Between 1942 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 104.9%, which works out to an average of
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1967: the 1942 dollar
lost 51.2% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1967 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,049, and $10,000 becomes $20,491.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1967
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.25
$10.00
$20.49
$20.00
$40.98
$50.00
$102
$100
$205
$500
$1,025
$1,000
$2,049
$5,000
$10,245
$10,000
$20,491
$100,000
$204,908
$1,000,000
$2,049,080
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1967
Between 1942 and 1967, medical care rose the most, up 163.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 91.0%, against 104.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$205
Medical care
3.95%
$264
Food
3.23%
$221
Transportation
2.98%
$208
Apparel
2.62%
$191
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 1967
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1967 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
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$205
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $165 by
1954, on its way to $205 in 1967; 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 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $205; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1967: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1967/