$100 in 1942 is worth $637 in 1984,
because prices increased 537.4% over that period, an average of
4.51% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$637
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
537.4%
Average inflation rate
4.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$637
Price difference ($100 base)
$537
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1942 → 1984
$637
$100 in 1984 → 1942
$15.69
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1984
Between 1942 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 537.4%, which works out to an average of
4.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1984: the 1942 dollar
lost 84.3% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1984 at the same ratio, 6.37: $1,000 becomes
$6,374, and $10,000 becomes $63,742.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1984
$1.00
$6.37
$5.00
$31.87
$10.00
$63.74
$20.00
$127
$50.00
$319
$100
$637
$500
$3,187
$1,000
$6,374
$5,000
$31,871
$10,000
$63,742
$100,000
$637,423
$1,000,000
$6,374,233
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1984
Between 1942 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 898.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 282.4%, against 537.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.51%
$637
Medical care
5.63%
$998
Food
4.63%
$670
Transportation
4.55%
$648
Apparel
3.25%
$382
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 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1984 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$506
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$637
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $185 by
1962, on its way to $637 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $637; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1984: $100 is worth $637 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1984/