$100 in 1944 is worth $1,393 in 2017,
because prices increased 1292.7% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,393
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1292.7%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,393
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,293
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1944 → 2017
$1,393
$100 in 2017 → 1944
$7.18
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2017
Between 1944 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1292.7%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2017: the 1944 dollar
lost 92.8% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 2017 at the same ratio, 13.93: $1,000 becomes
$13,927, and $10,000 becomes $139,273.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2017
$1.00
$13.93
$5.00
$69.64
$10.00
$139
$20.00
$279
$50.00
$696
$100
$1,393
$500
$6,964
$1,000
$13,927
$5,000
$69,636
$10,000
$139,273
$100,000
$1,392,727
$1,000,000
$13,927,273
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2017
Between 1944 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 3997.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 321.5%, against 1292.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$1,393
Medical care
5.22%
$4,098
Food
3.76%
$1,480
Transportation
3.54%
$1,268
Apparel
1.99%
$422
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 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,393
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $412 by
1979, on its way to $1,393 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,393; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,393 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2017/