$100 in 1944 is worth $926 in 1998,
because prices increased 826.1% over that period, an average of
4.21% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$926
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
826.1%
Average inflation rate
4.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$926
Price difference ($100 base)
$826
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1944 → 1998
$926
$100 in 1998 → 1944
$10.80
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1998
Between 1944 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 826.1%, which works out to an average of
4.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1998: the 1944 dollar
lost 89.2% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 1998 at the same ratio, 9.26: $1,000 becomes
$9,261, and $10,000 becomes $92,614.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1998
$1.00
$9.26
$5.00
$46.31
$10.00
$92.61
$20.00
$185
$50.00
$463
$100
$926
$500
$4,631
$1,000
$9,261
$5,000
$46,307
$10,000
$92,614
$100,000
$926,136
$1,000,000
$9,261,364
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1998
Between 1944 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1987.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 346.3%, against 826.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.21%
$926
Medical care
5.79%
$2,087
Food
4.26%
$951
Transportation
4.13%
$891
Apparel
2.81%
$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 1998
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 1944–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$926
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $220 by
1970, on its way to $926 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $926; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1998: $100 is worth $926 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1998/