$100 in 1944 is worth $306 in 1975,
because prices increased 205.7% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$306
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
205.7%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$306
Price difference ($100 base)
$206
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1944 → 1975
$306
$100 in 1975 → 1944
$32.71
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1975
Between 1944 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 205.7%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1975: the 1944 dollar
lost 67.3% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.06: $1,000 becomes
$3,057, and $10,000 becomes $30,568.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.06
$5.00
$15.28
$10.00
$30.57
$20.00
$61.14
$50.00
$153
$100
$306
$500
$1,528
$1,000
$3,057
$5,000
$15,284
$10,000
$30,568
$100,000
$305,682
$1,000,000
$3,056,818
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1975
Between 1944 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 309.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 143.3%, against 205.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$306
Medical care
4.65%
$409
Food
4.16%
$354
Transportation
3.77%
$315
Apparel
2.91%
$243
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$306
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $168 by
1960, on its way to $306 in 1975; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $306; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1975: $100 is worth $306 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1975/