$100 in 1945 is worth $151 in 1956,
because prices increased 51.1% over that period, an average of
3.82% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$151
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
51.1%
Average inflation rate
3.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$151
Price difference ($100 base)
$51.11
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1945 → 1956
$151
$100 in 1956 → 1945
$66.18
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1956
Between 1945 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 51.1%, which works out to an average of
3.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1956: the 1945 dollar
lost 33.8% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.51: $1,000 becomes
$1,511, and $10,000 becomes $15,111.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.51
$5.00
$7.56
$10.00
$15.11
$20.00
$30.22
$50.00
$75.56
$100
$151
$500
$756
$1,000
$1,511
$5,000
$7,556
$10,000
$15,111
$100,000
$151,111
$1,000,000
$1,511,111
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1956
Between 1945 and 1956, transportation rose the most, up 64.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 39.2%, against 51.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.82%
$151
Transportation
4.65%
$165
Food
4.47%
$162
Medical care
4.30%
$159
Apparel
3.05%
$139
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 1956
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.04% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1956 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$151
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $134 by
1950, on its way to $151 in 1956; 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 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $151; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1956: $100 is worth $151 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1956/