$100 in 1942 is worth $302 in 1974,
because prices increased 202.5% over that period, an average of
3.52% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$302
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
202.5%
Average inflation rate
3.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$302
Price difference ($100 base)
$202
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1942 → 1974
$302
$100 in 1974 → 1942
$33.06
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1974
Between 1942 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 202.5%, which works out to an average of
3.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1974: the 1942 dollar
lost 66.9% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1974 at the same ratio, 3.02: $1,000 becomes
$3,025, and $10,000 becomes $30,245.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1974
$1.00
$3.02
$5.00
$15.12
$10.00
$30.25
$20.00
$60.49
$50.00
$151
$100
$302
$500
$1,512
$1,000
$3,025
$5,000
$15,123
$10,000
$30,245
$100,000
$302,454
$1,000,000
$3,024,540
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1974
Between 1942 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 296.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 159.9%, against 202.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.52%
$302
Medical care
4.40%
$396
Food
4.06%
$358
Transportation
3.34%
$286
Apparel
3.03%
$260
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$302
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $177 by
1958, on its way to $302 in 1974; 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: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $302; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1974: $100 is worth $302 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1974/