$100 in 1945 is worth $274 in 1974,
because prices increased 173.9% over that period, an average of
3.54% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$274
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
173.9%
Average inflation rate
3.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$274
Price difference ($100 base)
$174
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1945 → 1974
$274
$100 in 1974 → 1945
$36.51
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1974
Between 1945 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 173.9%, which works out to an average of
3.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1974: the 1945 dollar
lost 63.5% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1974 at the same ratio, 2.74: $1,000 becomes
$2,739, and $10,000 becomes $27,389.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1974
$1.00
$2.74
$5.00
$13.69
$10.00
$27.39
$20.00
$54.78
$50.00
$137
$100
$274
$500
$1,369
$1,000
$2,739
$5,000
$13,694
$10,000
$27,389
$100,000
$273,889
$1,000,000
$2,738,889
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1974
Between 1945 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 256.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 121.0%, against 173.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.54%
$274
Medical care
4.48%
$356
Food
4.08%
$318
Transportation
3.72%
$288
Apparel
2.77%
$221
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$274
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $162 by
1959, on its way to $274 in 1974; 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 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $274; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1974: $100 is worth $274 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1974/