$100 in 1944 is worth $774 in 1991,
because prices increased 673.9% over that period, an average of
4.45% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$774
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
673.9%
Average inflation rate
4.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$774
Price difference ($100 base)
$674
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1944 → 1991
$774
$100 in 1991 → 1944
$12.92
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1991
Between 1944 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 673.9%, which works out to an average of
4.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1991: the 1944 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1991 at the same ratio, 7.74: $1,000 becomes
$7,739, and $10,000 becomes $77,386.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1991
$1.00
$7.74
$5.00
$38.69
$10.00
$77.39
$20.00
$155
$50.00
$387
$100
$774
$500
$3,869
$1,000
$7,739
$5,000
$38,693
$10,000
$77,386
$100,000
$773,864
$1,000,000
$7,738,636
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1991
Between 1944 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 1425.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 331.9%, against 673.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.45%
$774
Medical care
5.97%
$1,526
Food
4.54%
$807
Transportation
4.46%
$779
Apparel
3.16%
$432
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 1991
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 1944–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$774
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $198 by
1968, on its way to $774 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $774; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1991: $100 is worth $774 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1991/