$100 in 1944 is worth $148 in 1951,
because prices increased 47.7% over that period, an average of
5.73% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$148
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
47.7%
Average inflation rate
5.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$148
Price difference ($100 base)
$47.73
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1944 → 1951
$148
$100 in 1951 → 1944
$67.69
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1951
Between 1944 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 47.7%, which works out to an average of
5.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.68 buys in 1951: the 1944 dollar
lost 32.3% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.48: $1,000 becomes
$1,477, and $10,000 becomes $14,773.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.48
$5.00
$7.39
$10.00
$14.77
$20.00
$29.55
$50.00
$73.86
$100
$148
$500
$739
$1,000
$1,477
$5,000
$7,386
$10,000
$14,773
$100,000
$147,727
$1,000,000
$1,477,273
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1951
Between 1944 and 1951, food rose the most, up 66.9%, while medical care rose the least, up 37.1%, against 47.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.73%
$148
Food
7.59%
$167
Transportation
6.12%
$152
Apparel
5.69%
$147
Medical care
4.61%
$137
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–).
Decade by decade: 1944 to 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (5.38% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1944, at end
1944–1950
5.38%
36.9%
$137
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$148
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $127 by
1947, on its way to $148 in 1951; 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.
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $148; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1951: $100 is worth $148 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1951/