$100 in 1945 is worth $148 in 1953,
because prices increased 48.3% over that period, an average of
5.05% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$148
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
48.3%
Average inflation rate
5.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$148
Price difference ($100 base)
$48.33
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1945 → 1953
$148
$100 in 1953 → 1945
$67.42
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1953
Between 1945 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 48.3%, which works out to an average of
5.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1953: the 1945 dollar
lost 32.6% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1945 amount converts to 1953 at the same ratio, 1.48: $1,000 becomes
$1,483, and $10,000 becomes $14,833.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.48
$5.00
$7.42
$10.00
$14.83
$20.00
$29.67
$50.00
$74.17
$100
$148
$500
$742
$1,000
$1,483
$5,000
$7,417
$10,000
$14,833
$100,000
$148,333
$1,000,000
$1,483,333
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1953
Between 1945 and 1953, transportation rose the most, up 66.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 37.3%, against 48.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.05%
$148
Transportation
6.59%
$167
Food
6.35%
$164
Medical care
4.79%
$145
Apparel
4.04%
$137
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1945: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1945 to 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (3.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1953 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$148
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $132 by
1949, on its way to $148 in 1953; 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.
In 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $148; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1953: $100 is worth $148 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1953/