$100 in 1944 is worth $1,278 in 2011,
because prices increased 1178.1% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,278
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1178.1%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,278
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,178
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1944 → 2011
$1,278
$100 in 2011 → 1944
$7.82
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2011
Between 1944 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1178.1%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2011: the 1944 dollar
lost 92.2% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2011 at the same ratio, 12.78: $1,000 becomes
$12,781, and $10,000 becomes $127,806.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2011
$1.00
$12.78
$5.00
$63.90
$10.00
$128
$20.00
$256
$50.00
$639
$100
$1,278
$500
$6,390
$1,000
$12,781
$5,000
$63,903
$10,000
$127,806
$100,000
$1,278,062
$1,000,000
$12,780,625
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2011
Between 1944 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 3350.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 309.8%, against 1178.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$1,278
Medical care
5.43%
$3,451
Food
3.96%
$1,348
Transportation
3.94%
$1,336
Apparel
2.13%
$410
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 2011
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 1944–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,239
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$1,278
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $412 by
1979, on its way to $1,278 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,278; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2011: $100 is worth $1,278 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2011/