$100 in 1942 is worth $330 in 1975,
because prices increased 230.1% over that period, an average of
3.68% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$330
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
230.1%
Average inflation rate
3.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$330
Price difference ($100 base)
$230
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1942 → 1975
$330
$100 in 1975 → 1942
$30.30
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1975
Between 1942 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 230.1%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1975: the 1942 dollar
lost 69.7% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.30: $1,000 becomes
$3,301, and $10,000 becomes $33,006.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.30
$5.00
$16.50
$10.00
$33.01
$20.00
$66.01
$50.00
$165
$100
$330
$500
$1,650
$1,000
$3,301
$5,000
$16,503
$10,000
$33,006
$100,000
$330,061
$1,000,000
$3,300,613
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1975
Between 1942 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 343.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.5%, against 230.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$330
Medical care
4.62%
$444
Food
4.20%
$388
Transportation
3.52%
$313
Apparel
3.07%
$272
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$330
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $177 by
1958, on its way to $330 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $330; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1975: $100 is worth $330 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1975/