$100 in 1944 is worth $821 in 1993,
because prices increased 721.0% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$821
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
721.0%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$821
Price difference ($100 base)
$721
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1944 → 1993
$821
$100 in 1993 → 1944
$12.18
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1993
Between 1944 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 721.0%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1993: the 1944 dollar
lost 87.8% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1993 at the same ratio, 8.21: $1,000 becomes
$8,210, and $10,000 becomes $82,102.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1993
$1.00
$8.21
$5.00
$41.05
$10.00
$82.10
$20.00
$164
$50.00
$411
$100
$821
$500
$4,105
$1,000
$8,210
$5,000
$41,051
$10,000
$82,102
$100,000
$821,023
$1,000,000
$8,210,227
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1993
Between 1944 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 1636.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 348.7%, against 721.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$821
Medical care
6.00%
$1,736
Food
4.42%
$834
Transportation
4.39%
$820
Apparel
3.11%
$449
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 1993
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 1944–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$821
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $198 by
1968, on its way to $821 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $821; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1993: $100 is worth $821 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1993/