$100 in 1945 is worth $247 in 1973,
because prices increased 146.7% over that period, an average of
3.28% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$247
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
146.7%
Average inflation rate
3.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$247
Price difference ($100 base)
$147
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1945 → 1973
$247
$100 in 1973 → 1945
$40.54
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1973
Between 1945 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 146.7%, which works out to an average of
3.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1973: the 1945 dollar
lost 59.5% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.47: $1,000 becomes
$2,467, and $10,000 becomes $24,667.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.47
$5.00
$12.33
$10.00
$24.67
$20.00
$49.33
$50.00
$123
$100
$247
$500
$1,233
$1,000
$2,467
$5,000
$12,333
$10,000
$24,667
$100,000
$246,667
$1,000,000
$2,466,667
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1973
Between 1945 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 226.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 105.7%, against 146.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.28%
$247
Medical care
4.31%
$326
Food
3.73%
$279
Transportation
3.46%
$259
Apparel
2.61%
$206
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 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.01% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$164
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$216
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$247
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $162 by
1959, on its way to $247 in 1973; 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 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $247; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1973: $100 is worth $247 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1973/