$100 in 1944 is worth $1,045 in 2003,
because prices increased 945.5% over that period, an average of
4.06% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,045
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
945.5%
Average inflation rate
4.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,045
Price difference ($100 base)
$945
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1944 → 2003
$1,045
$100 in 2003 → 1944
$9.57
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2003
Between 1944 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 945.5%, which works out to an average of
4.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2003: the 1944 dollar
lost 90.4% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2003 at the same ratio, 10.45: $1,000 becomes
$10,455, and $10,000 becomes $104,545.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2003
$1.00
$10.45
$5.00
$52.27
$10.00
$105
$20.00
$209
$50.00
$523
$100
$1,045
$500
$5,227
$1,000
$10,455
$5,000
$52,273
$10,000
$104,545
$100,000
$1,045,455
$1,000,000
$10,454,545
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2003
Between 1944 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 2461.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 305.7%, against 945.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.06%
$1,045
Medical care
5.65%
$2,561
Food
4.09%
$1,065
Transportation
3.96%
$991
Apparel
2.40%
$406
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 2003
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 1944–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$978
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,045
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $280 by
1974, on its way to $1,045 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,045; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,045 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2003/