$100 in 1944 is worth $912 in 1997,
because prices increased 811.9% over that period, an average of
4.26% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$912
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
811.9%
Average inflation rate
4.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$912
Price difference ($100 base)
$812
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1944 → 1997
$912
$100 in 1997 → 1944
$10.97
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1997
Between 1944 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 811.9%, which works out to an average of
4.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1997: the 1944 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1997 at the same ratio, 9.12: $1,000 becomes
$9,119, and $10,000 becomes $91,193.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1997
$1.00
$9.12
$5.00
$45.60
$10.00
$91.19
$20.00
$182
$50.00
$456
$100
$912
$500
$4,560
$1,000
$9,119
$5,000
$45,597
$10,000
$91,193
$100,000
$911,932
$1,000,000
$9,119,318
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1997
Between 1944 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 1922.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 346.0%, against 811.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.26%
$912
Medical care
5.84%
$2,022
Food
4.30%
$931
Transportation
4.25%
$908
Apparel
2.86%
$446
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 1997
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 1944–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$912
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $220 by
1970, on its way to $912 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $912; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1997: $100 is worth $912 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1997/