$100 in 1942 is worth $1,380 in 2011,
because prices increased 1280.0% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$1,380
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1280.0%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,380
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,280
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1942 → 2011
$1,380
$100 in 2011 → 1942
$7.25
What happened to prices between 1942 and 2011
Between 1942 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1280.0%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2011: the 1942 dollar
lost 92.8% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2011 at the same ratio, 13.80: $1,000 becomes
$13,800, and $10,000 becomes $137,999.
Amount in 1942
Value in 2011
$1.00
$13.80
$5.00
$69.00
$10.00
$138
$20.00
$276
$50.00
$690
$100
$1,380
$500
$6,900
$1,000
$13,800
$5,000
$69,000
$10,000
$137,999
$100,000
$1,379,994
$1,000,000
$13,799,939
Inflation by spending category, 1942–2011
Between 1942 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 3640.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 357.3%, against 1280.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$1,380
Medical care
5.39%
$3,741
Food
3.98%
$1,479
Transportation
3.82%
$1,327
Apparel
2.23%
$457
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 2011
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 1942–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,338
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$1,380
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $372 by
1977, on its way to $1,380 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $1,380; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1942 to 2011: $100 is worth $1,380 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-2011/