$100 in 1944 is worth $1,110 in 2005,
because prices increased 1009.7% over that period, an average of
4.02% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,110
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1009.7%
Average inflation rate
4.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,110
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,010
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1944 → 2005
$1,110
$100 in 2005 → 1944
$9.01
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2005
Between 1944 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1009.7%, which works out to an average of
4.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2005: the 1944 dollar
lost 91.0% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 2005 at the same ratio, 11.10: $1,000 becomes
$11,097, and $10,000 becomes $110,966.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2005
$1.00
$11.10
$5.00
$55.48
$10.00
$111
$20.00
$222
$50.00
$555
$100
$1,110
$500
$5,548
$1,000
$11,097
$5,000
$55,483
$10,000
$110,966
$100,000
$1,109,659
$1,000,000
$11,096,591
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2005
Between 1944 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 2686.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 301.0%, against 1009.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.02%
$1,110
Medical care
5.61%
$2,786
Food
4.05%
$1,128
Transportation
4.00%
$1,094
Apparel
2.30%
$401
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 2005
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 1944–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,110
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $280 by
1974, on its way to $1,110 in 2005; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,110; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,110 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2005/