$100 in 1944 is worth $127 in 1947,
because prices increased 26.7% over that period, an average of
8.21% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$127
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
26.7%
Average inflation rate
8.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$127
Price difference ($100 base)
$26.70
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1944 → 1947
$127
$100 in 1947 → 1944
$78.92
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1947
Between 1944 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 26.7%, which works out to an average of
8.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.79 buys in 1947: the 1944 dollar
lost 21.1% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1944 amount converts to 1947 at the same ratio, 1.27: $1,000 becomes
$1,267, and $10,000 becomes $12,670.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.27
$5.00
$6.34
$10.00
$12.67
$20.00
$25.34
$50.00
$63.35
$100
$127
$500
$634
$1,000
$1,267
$5,000
$6,335
$10,000
$12,670
$100,000
$126,705
$1,000,000
$1,267,045
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1947
Between 1944 and 1947, food rose the most, up 42.6%, while transportation rose the least, up 16.4%, against 26.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.21%
$127
Food
12.56%
$143
Apparel
10.22%
$134
Medical care
5.19%
$116
Transportation
5.18%
$116
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1944: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $102 by
1945, on its way to $127 in 1947; 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 the smallest rise was 2.3% in 1945.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $127; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1947: $100 is worth $127 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1947/