$100 in 1942 is worth $935 in 1995,
because prices increased 835.0% over that period, an average of
4.31% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$935
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
835.0%
Average inflation rate
4.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$935
Price difference ($100 base)
$835
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1942 → 1995
$935
$100 in 1995 → 1942
$10.70
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1995
Between 1942 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 835.0%, which works out to an average of
4.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1995: the 1942 dollar
lost 89.3% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1995 at the same ratio, 9.35: $1,000 becomes
$9,350, and $10,000 becomes $93,497.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1995
$1.00
$9.35
$5.00
$46.75
$10.00
$93.50
$20.00
$187
$50.00
$467
$100
$935
$500
$4,675
$1,000
$9,350
$5,000
$46,748
$10,000
$93,497
$100,000
$934,969
$1,000,000
$9,349,693
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1995
Between 1942 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1960.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 394.4%, against 835.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.31%
$935
Medical care
5.87%
$2,061
Food
4.37%
$964
Transportation
4.16%
$869
Apparel
3.06%
$494
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 1995
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 1942–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$935
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $213 by
1968, on its way to $935 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $935; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1995: $100 is worth $935 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1995/