$100 in 1944 is worth $566 in 1983,
because prices increased 465.9% over that period, an average of
4.54% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$566
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
465.9%
Average inflation rate
4.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$566
Price difference ($100 base)
$466
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1944 → 1983
$566
$100 in 1983 → 1944
$17.67
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1983
Between 1944 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 465.9%, which works out to an average of
4.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1983: the 1944 dollar
lost 82.3% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1983 at the same ratio, 5.66: $1,000 becomes
$5,659, and $10,000 becomes $56,591.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1983
$1.00
$5.66
$5.00
$28.30
$10.00
$56.59
$20.00
$113
$50.00
$283
$100
$566
$500
$2,830
$1,000
$5,659
$5,000
$28,295
$10,000
$56,591
$100,000
$565,909
$1,000,000
$5,659,091
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1983
Between 1944 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 767.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 236.2%, against 465.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.54%
$566
Medical care
5.70%
$867
Transportation
4.81%
$625
Food
4.65%
$588
Apparel
3.16%
$336
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1983 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$468
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$566
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $176 by
1964, on its way to $566 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $566; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1983: $100 is worth $566 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1983/