$100 in 1944 is worth $1,453 in 2019,
because prices increased 1352.6% over that period, an average of
3.63% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$1,453
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1352.6%
Average inflation rate
3.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,453
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,353
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1944 → 2019
$1,453
$100 in 2019 → 1944
$6.88
What happened to prices between 1944 and 2019
Between 1944 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1352.6%, which works out to an average of
3.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2019: the 1944 dollar
lost 93.1% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 2019 at the same ratio, 14.53: $1,000 becomes
$14,526, and $10,000 becomes $145,260.
Amount in 1944
Value in 2019
$1.00
$14.53
$5.00
$72.63
$10.00
$145
$20.00
$291
$50.00
$726
$100
$1,453
$500
$7,263
$1,000
$14,526
$5,000
$72,630
$10,000
$145,260
$100,000
$1,452,597
$1,000,000
$14,525,966
Inflation by spending category, 1944–2019
Between 1944 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 4196.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 316.3%, against 1352.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.63%
$1,453
Medical care
5.14%
$4,297
Food
3.70%
$1,528
Transportation
3.50%
$1,321
Apparel
1.92%
$416
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 2019
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 1944–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,453
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $412 by
1979, on its way to $1,453 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $1,453; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,453 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-2019/