$100 in 1942 is worth $909 in 1994,
because prices increased 809.2% over that period, an average of
4.34% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$909
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
809.2%
Average inflation rate
4.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$909
Price difference ($100 base)
$809
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1942 → 1994
$909
$100 in 1994 → 1942
$11.00
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1994
Between 1942 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 809.2%, which works out to an average of
4.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1994: the 1942 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1994 at the same ratio, 9.09: $1,000 becomes
$9,092, and $10,000 becomes $90,920.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1994
$1.00
$9.09
$5.00
$45.46
$10.00
$90.92
$20.00
$182
$50.00
$455
$100
$909
$500
$4,546
$1,000
$9,092
$5,000
$45,460
$10,000
$90,920
$100,000
$909,202
$1,000,000
$9,092,025
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1994
Between 1942 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 1872.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 399.6%, against 809.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.34%
$909
Medical care
5.90%
$1,972
Food
4.40%
$937
Transportation
4.18%
$839
Apparel
3.14%
$500
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 1994
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 1942–1994 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$802
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$909
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $213 by
1968, on its way to $909 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $909; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1994: $100 is worth $909 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1994/