$100 in 1942 is worth $761 in 1989,
because prices increased 660.7% over that period, an average of
4.41% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$761
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
660.7%
Average inflation rate
4.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$761
Price difference ($100 base)
$661
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1942 → 1989
$761
$100 in 1989 → 1942
$13.15
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1989
Between 1942 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 660.7%, which works out to an average of
4.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1989: the 1942 dollar
lost 86.9% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1989 at the same ratio, 7.61: $1,000 becomes
$7,607, and $10,000 becomes $76,074.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1989
$1.00
$7.61
$5.00
$38.04
$10.00
$76.07
$20.00
$152
$50.00
$380
$100
$761
$500
$3,804
$1,000
$7,607
$5,000
$38,037
$10,000
$76,074
$100,000
$760,736
$1,000,000
$7,607,362
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1989
Between 1942 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 1295.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 344.2%, against 660.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.41%
$761
Medical care
5.77%
$1,395
Food
4.56%
$812
Transportation
4.27%
$713
Apparel
3.22%
$444
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 1989
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 1942–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$761
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $199 by
1966, on its way to $761 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $761; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1989: $100 is worth $761 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1989/