$100 in 1944 is worth $866 in 1995,
because prices increased 765.9% over that period, an average of
4.32% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$866
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
765.9%
Average inflation rate
4.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$866
Price difference ($100 base)
$766
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1944 → 1995
$866
$100 in 1995 → 1944
$11.55
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1995
Between 1944 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 765.9%, which works out to an average of
4.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1995: the 1944 dollar
lost 88.5% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1995 at the same ratio, 8.66: $1,000 becomes
$8,659, and $10,000 becomes $86,591.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1995
$1.00
$8.66
$5.00
$43.30
$10.00
$86.59
$20.00
$173
$50.00
$433
$100
$866
$500
$4,330
$1,000
$8,659
$5,000
$43,295
$10,000
$86,591
$100,000
$865,909
$1,000,000
$8,659,091
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1995
Between 1944 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1800.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 343.0%, against 765.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.32%
$866
Medical care
5.94%
$1,901
Food
4.35%
$878
Transportation
4.34%
$875
Apparel
2.96%
$443
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 1995
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 1944–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$866
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $220 by
1970, on its way to $866 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $866; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1995: $100 is worth $866 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1995/