$100 in 1944 is worth $252 in 1973,
because prices increased 152.3% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$252
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
152.3%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$252
Price difference ($100 base)
$152
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1944 → 1973
$252
$100 in 1973 → 1944
$39.64
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1973
Between 1944 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 152.3%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1973: the 1944 dollar
lost 60.4% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.52: $1,000 becomes
$2,523, and $10,000 becomes $25,227.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.52
$5.00
$12.61
$10.00
$25.23
$20.00
$50.45
$50.00
$126
$100
$252
$500
$1,261
$1,000
$2,523
$5,000
$12,614
$10,000
$25,227
$100,000
$252,273
$1,000,000
$2,522,727
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1973
Between 1944 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 234.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 116.8%, against 152.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$252
Medical care
4.25%
$334
Food
3.68%
$285
Transportation
3.34%
$259
Apparel
2.70%
$217
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 1973
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 1944–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$252
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $164 by
1958, on its way to $252 in 1973; 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 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $252; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1973: $100 is worth $252 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1973/