$100 in 1944 is worth $179 in 1965,
because prices increased 79.0% over that period, an average of
2.81% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$179
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
79.0%
Average inflation rate
2.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$179
Price difference ($100 base)
$78.98
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1944 → 1965
$179
$100 in 1965 → 1944
$55.87
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1965
Between 1944 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 79.0%, which works out to an average of
2.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1965: the 1944 dollar
lost 44.1% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1965 at the same ratio, 1.79: $1,000 becomes
$1,790, and $10,000 becomes $17,898.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.79
$5.00
$8.95
$10.00
$17.90
$20.00
$35.80
$50.00
$89.49
$100
$179
$500
$895
$1,000
$1,790
$5,000
$8,949
$10,000
$17,898
$100,000
$178,977
$1,000,000
$1,789,773
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1965
Between 1944 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 117.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.4%, against 79.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.81%
$179
Medical care
3.76%
$217
Transportation
3.37%
$201
Food
3.12%
$191
Apparel
2.28%
$160
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 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.38% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.25% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1944, at end
1944–1950
5.38%
36.9%
$137
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$168
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$179
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $153 by
1954, on its way to $179 in 1965; 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 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $179; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1965: $100 is worth $179 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1965/