$100 in 1944 is worth $164 in 1958,
because prices increased 64.2% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$164
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
64.2%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$164
Price difference ($100 base)
$64.20
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1944 → 1958
$164
$100 in 1958 → 1944
$60.90
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1958
Between 1944 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 64.2%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1958: the 1944 dollar
lost 39.1% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.64: $1,000 becomes
$1,642, and $10,000 becomes $16,420.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.64
$5.00
$8.21
$10.00
$16.42
$20.00
$32.84
$50.00
$82.10
$100
$164
$500
$821
$1,000
$1,642
$5,000
$8,210
$10,000
$16,420
$100,000
$164,205
$1,000,000
$1,642,045
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1958
Between 1944 and 1958, transportation rose the most, up 79.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 49.7%, against 64.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$164
Transportation
4.28%
$180
Food
4.23%
$179
Medical care
4.19%
$178
Apparel
2.92%
$150
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 1958
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.30% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1958 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1944, at end
1944–1950
5.38%
36.9%
$137
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$164
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $148 by
1951, on its way to $164 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $164; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1958: $100 is worth $164 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1958/