$100 in 1942 is worth $1,022 in 1999,
because prices increased 922.1% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$1,022
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
922.1%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,022
Price difference ($100 base)
$922
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1942 → 1999
$1,022
$100 in 1999 → 1942
$9.78
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1999
Between 1942 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 922.1%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1999: the 1942 dollar
lost 90.2% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1999 at the same ratio, 10.22: $1,000 becomes
$10,221, and $10,000 becomes $102,209.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1999
$1.00
$10.22
$5.00
$51.10
$10.00
$102
$20.00
$204
$50.00
$511
$100
$1,022
$500
$5,110
$1,000
$10,221
$5,000
$51,104
$10,000
$102,209
$100,000
$1,022,086
$1,000,000
$10,220,859
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1999
Between 1942 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 2242.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 391.8%, against 922.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$1,022
Medical care
5.69%
$2,342
Food
4.24%
$1,066
Transportation
3.94%
$903
Apparel
2.83%
$492
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 1999
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 1942–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,022
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $238 by
1970, on its way to $1,022 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $1,022; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,022 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1999/