$100 in 1944 is worth $1,178 in 2007,
because prices increased 1078.1% over that period, an average of
3.99% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,178
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1078.1%
Average inflation rate
3.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,178
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,078
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1944 → 2007
$1,178
$100 in 2007 → 1944
$8.49
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2007
Between 1944 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1078.1%, which works out to an average of
3.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2007: the 1944 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 2007 at the same ratio, 11.78: $1,000 becomes
$11,781, and $10,000 becomes $117,808.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2007
$1.00
$11.78
$5.00
$58.90
$10.00
$118
$20.00
$236
$50.00
$589
$100
$1,178
$500
$5,890
$1,000
$11,781
$5,000
$58,904
$10,000
$117,808
$100,000
$1,178,080
$1,000,000
$11,780,795
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2007
Between 1944 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 2926.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 299.3%, against 1078.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.99%
$1,178
Medical care
5.56%
$3,026
Food
4.02%
$1,201
Transportation
3.97%
$1,162
Apparel
2.22%
$399
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 2007
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 1944–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$1,178
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $280 by
1974, on its way to $1,178 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,178; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2007: $100 is worth $1,178 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2007/