$100 in 1944 is worth $1,305 in 2012,
because prices increased 1204.5% over that period, an average of
3.85% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,305
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1204.5%
Average inflation rate
3.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,305
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,205
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1944 → 2012
$1,305
$100 in 2012 → 1944
$7.67
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2012
Between 1944 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1204.5%, which works out to an average of
3.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2012: the 1944 dollar
lost 92.3% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 2012 at the same ratio, 13.05: $1,000 becomes
$13,045, and $10,000 becomes $130,451.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2012
$1.00
$13.05
$5.00
$65.23
$10.00
$130
$20.00
$261
$50.00
$652
$100
$1,305
$500
$6,523
$1,000
$13,045
$5,000
$65,226
$10,000
$130,451
$100,000
$1,304,511
$1,000,000
$13,045,114
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2012
Between 1944 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 3476.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 323.7%, against 1204.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.85%
$1,305
Medical care
5.40%
$3,577
Food
3.94%
$1,383
Transportation
3.92%
$1,367
Apparel
2.15%
$424
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 2012
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 1944–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,305
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $412 by
1979, on its way to $1,305 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,305; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,305 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2012/