$100 in 1944 is worth $160 in 1957,
because prices increased 59.7% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$160
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
59.7%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$160
Price difference ($100 base)
$59.66
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1944 → 1957
$160
$100 in 1957 → 1944
$62.63
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1957
Between 1944 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 59.7%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1957: the 1944 dollar
lost 37.4% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.60: $1,000 becomes
$1,597, and $10,000 becomes $15,966.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.60
$5.00
$7.98
$10.00
$15.97
$20.00
$31.93
$50.00
$79.83
$100
$160
$500
$798
$1,000
$1,597
$5,000
$7,983
$10,000
$15,966
$100,000
$159,659
$1,000,000
$1,596,591
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1957
Between 1944 and 1957, transportation rose the most, up 74.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 49.3%, against 59.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$160
Transportation
4.36%
$174
Food
4.21%
$171
Medical care
4.16%
$170
Apparel
3.13%
$149
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 1957
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.22% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1957 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1944, at end
1944–1950
5.38%
36.9%
$137
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$160
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $137 by
1950, on its way to $160 in 1957; 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 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $160; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1957: $100 is worth $160 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1957/