$100 in 1942 is worth $272 in 1973,
because prices increased 172.4% over that period, an average of
3.29% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$272
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
172.4%
Average inflation rate
3.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$272
Price difference ($100 base)
$172
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1942 → 1973
$272
$100 in 1973 → 1942
$36.71
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1973
Between 1942 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 172.4%, which works out to an average of
3.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1973: the 1942 dollar
lost 63.3% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.72: $1,000 becomes
$2,724, and $10,000 becomes $27,239.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.72
$5.00
$13.62
$10.00
$27.24
$20.00
$54.48
$50.00
$136
$100
$272
$500
$1,362
$1,000
$2,724
$5,000
$13,620
$10,000
$27,239
$100,000
$272,393
$1,000,000
$2,723,926
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1973
Between 1942 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 262.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 141.9%, against 172.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.29%
$272
Medical care
4.24%
$363
Food
3.75%
$313
Transportation
3.10%
$258
Apparel
2.89%
$242
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 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1973 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$238
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$272
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $177 by
1958, on its way to $272 in 1973; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $272; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1973: $100 is worth $272 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1973/