$100 in 1944 is worth $230 in 1971,
because prices increased 130.1% over that period, an average of
3.13% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$230
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
130.1%
Average inflation rate
3.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$230
Price difference ($100 base)
$130
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1944 → 1971
$230
$100 in 1971 → 1944
$43.46
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1971
Between 1944 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 130.1%, which works out to an average of
3.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1971: the 1944 dollar
lost 56.5% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.30: $1,000 becomes
$2,301, and $10,000 becomes $23,011.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.30
$5.00
$11.51
$10.00
$23.01
$20.00
$46.02
$50.00
$115
$100
$230
$500
$1,151
$1,000
$2,301
$5,000
$11,506
$10,000
$23,011
$100,000
$230,114
$1,000,000
$2,301,136
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1971
Between 1944 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 211.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 105.0%, against 130.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.13%
$230
Medical care
4.29%
$311
Transportation
3.43%
$248
Food
3.28%
$239
Apparel
2.69%
$205
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 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.38% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$220
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$230
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $160 by
1957, on its way to $230 in 1971; 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 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $230; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1971: $100 is worth $230 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1971/