$100 in 1945 is worth $149 in 1954,
because prices increased 49.4% over that period, an average of
4.57% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$149
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
49.4%
Average inflation rate
4.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$149
Price difference ($100 base)
$49.44
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1945 → 1954
$149
$100 in 1954 → 1945
$66.91
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1954
Between 1945 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 49.4%, which works out to an average of
4.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1954: the 1945 dollar
lost 33.1% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.49: $1,000 becomes
$1,494, and $10,000 becomes $14,944.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.49
$5.00
$7.47
$10.00
$14.94
$20.00
$29.89
$50.00
$74.72
$100
$149
$500
$747
$1,000
$1,494
$5,000
$7,472
$10,000
$14,944
$100,000
$149,444
$1,000,000
$1,494,444
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1954
Between 1945 and 1954, transportation rose the most, up 64.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 37.3%, against 49.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.57%
$149
Transportation
5.66%
$164
Food
5.58%
$163
Medical care
4.58%
$150
Apparel
3.58%
$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 1954
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.79% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1954 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$149
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $132 by
1949, on its way to $149 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $149; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1954: $100 is worth $149 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1954/