$100 in 1944 is worth $1,145 in 2006,
because prices increased 1045.5% over that period, an average of
4.01% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,145
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1045.5%
Average inflation rate
4.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,145
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,045
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1944 → 2006
$1,145
$100 in 2006 → 1944
$8.73
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2006
Between 1944 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1045.5%, which works out to an average of
4.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2006: the 1944 dollar
lost 91.3% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2006 at the same ratio, 11.45: $1,000 becomes
$11,455, and $10,000 becomes $114,545.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2006
$1.00
$11.45
$5.00
$57.27
$10.00
$115
$20.00
$229
$50.00
$573
$100
$1,145
$500
$5,727
$1,000
$11,455
$5,000
$57,273
$10,000
$114,545
$100,000
$1,145,455
$1,000,000
$11,454,545
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2006
Between 1944 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 2798.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 301.0%, against 1045.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.01%
$1,145
Medical care
5.58%
$2,898
Food
4.03%
$1,155
Transportation
4.00%
$1,138
Apparel
2.27%
$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 2006
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 1944–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$1,145
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $280 by
1974, on its way to $1,145 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,145; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2006: $100 is worth $1,145 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2006/