$100 in 1944 is worth $743 in 1990,
because prices increased 642.6% over that period, an average of
4.46% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$743
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
642.6%
Average inflation rate
4.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$743
Price difference ($100 base)
$643
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1944 → 1990
$743
$100 in 1990 → 1944
$13.47
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1990
Between 1944 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 642.6%, which works out to an average of
4.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1990: the 1944 dollar
lost 86.5% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1990 at the same ratio, 7.43: $1,000 becomes
$7,426, and $10,000 becomes $74,261.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1990
$1.00
$7.43
$5.00
$37.13
$10.00
$74.26
$20.00
$149
$50.00
$371
$100
$743
$500
$3,713
$1,000
$7,426
$5,000
$37,131
$10,000
$74,261
$100,000
$742,614
$1,000,000
$7,426,136
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1990
Between 1944 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 1303.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 316.4%, against 642.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.46%
$743
Medical care
5.91%
$1,403
Food
4.58%
$783
Transportation
4.50%
$758
Apparel
3.15%
$416
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 1990
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 1944–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$743
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $184 by
1966, on its way to $743 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $743; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1990: $100 is worth $743 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1990/