$100 in 1944 is worth $1,427 in 2018,
because prices increased 1326.7% over that period, an average of
3.66% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,427
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1326.7%
Average inflation rate
3.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,427
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,327
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1944 → 2018
$1,427
$100 in 2018 → 1944
$7.01
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2018
Between 1944 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1326.7%, which works out to an average of
3.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2018: the 1944 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2018 at the same ratio, 14.27: $1,000 becomes
$14,267, and $10,000 becomes $142,674.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2018
$1.00
$14.27
$5.00
$71.34
$10.00
$143
$20.00
$285
$50.00
$713
$100
$1,427
$500
$7,134
$1,000
$14,267
$5,000
$71,337
$10,000
$142,674
$100,000
$1,426,744
$1,000,000
$14,267,443
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2018
Between 1944 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 4078.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 321.7%, against 1326.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.66%
$1,427
Medical care
5.17%
$4,179
Food
3.73%
$1,500
Transportation
3.55%
$1,325
Apparel
1.96%
$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 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,427
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $412 by
1979, on its way to $1,427 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,427; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,427 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2018/