$100 in 1942 is worth $1,316 in 2009,
because prices increased 1216.2% over that period, an average of
3.92% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$1,316
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1216.2%
Average inflation rate
3.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,316
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,216
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1942 → 2009
$1,316
$100 in 2009 → 1942
$7.60
What happened to prices between 1942 and 2009
Between 1942 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1216.2%, which works out to an average of
3.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2009: the 1942 dollar
lost 92.4% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2009 at the same ratio, 13.16: $1,000 becomes
$13,162, and $10,000 becomes $131,618.
Amount in 1942
Value in 2009
$1.00
$13.16
$5.00
$65.81
$10.00
$132
$20.00
$263
$50.00
$658
$100
$1,316
$500
$6,581
$1,000
$13,162
$5,000
$65,809
$10,000
$131,618
$100,000
$1,316,178
$1,000,000
$13,161,779
Inflation by spending category, 1942–2009
Between 1942 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 3410.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 349.7%, against 1216.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.92%
$1,316
Medical care
5.45%
$3,510
Food
4.03%
$1,415
Transportation
3.67%
$1,120
Apparel
2.27%
$450
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 2009
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 1942–2009 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,056
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,316
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $372 by
1977, on its way to $1,316 in 2009; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $1,316; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,316 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-2009/