$100 in 1944 is worth $623 in 1986,
because prices increased 522.7% over that period, an average of
4.45% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$623
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
522.7%
Average inflation rate
4.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$623
Price difference ($100 base)
$523
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1944 → 1986
$623
$100 in 1986 → 1944
$16.06
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1986
Between 1944 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 522.7%, which works out to an average of
4.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1986: the 1944 dollar
lost 83.9% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1986 at the same ratio, 6.23: $1,000 becomes
$6,227, and $10,000 becomes $62,273.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1986
$1.00
$6.23
$5.00
$31.14
$10.00
$62.27
$20.00
$125
$50.00
$311
$100
$623
$500
$3,114
$1,000
$6,227
$5,000
$31,136
$10,000
$62,273
$100,000
$622,727
$1,000,000
$6,227,273
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1986
Between 1944 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 951.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 255.4%, against 522.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.45%
$623
Medical care
5.76%
$1,052
Food
4.54%
$645
Transportation
4.53%
$643
Apparel
3.07%
$355
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 1986
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 1944–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$623
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $176 by
1964, on its way to $623 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $623; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1986: $100 is worth $623 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1986/