$100 in 1944 is worth $280 in 1974,
because prices increased 180.1% over that period, an average of
3.49% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$280
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
180.1%
Average inflation rate
3.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$280
Price difference ($100 base)
$180
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1944 → 1974
$280
$100 in 1974 → 1944
$35.70
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1974
Between 1944 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 180.1%, which works out to an average of
3.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1974: the 1944 dollar
lost 64.3% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1974 at the same ratio, 2.80: $1,000 becomes
$2,801, and $10,000 becomes $28,011.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1974
$1.00
$2.80
$5.00
$14.01
$10.00
$28.01
$20.00
$56.02
$50.00
$140
$100
$280
$500
$1,401
$1,000
$2,801
$5,000
$14,006
$10,000
$28,011
$100,000
$280,114
$1,000,000
$2,801,136
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1974
Between 1944 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 265.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 132.9%, against 180.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.49%
$280
Medical care
4.42%
$366
Food
4.02%
$326
Transportation
3.59%
$288
Apparel
2.86%
$233
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$280
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $165 by
1959, on its way to $280 in 1974; 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 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $280; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1974: $100 is worth $280 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1974/