$100 in 1945 is worth $299 in 1975,
because prices increased 198.9% over that period, an average of
3.72% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$299
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
198.9%
Average inflation rate
3.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$299
Price difference ($100 base)
$199
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1945 → 1975
$299
$100 in 1975 → 1945
$33.46
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1975
Between 1945 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 198.9%, which works out to an average of
3.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1975: the 1945 dollar
lost 66.5% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1975 at the same ratio, 2.99: $1,000 becomes
$2,989, and $10,000 becomes $29,889.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1975
$1.00
$2.99
$5.00
$14.94
$10.00
$29.89
$20.00
$59.78
$50.00
$149
$100
$299
$500
$1,494
$1,000
$2,989
$5,000
$14,944
$10,000
$29,889
$100,000
$298,889
$1,000,000
$2,988,889
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1975
Between 1945 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 299.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 130.9%, against 198.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.72%
$299
Medical care
4.72%
$399
Food
4.22%
$346
Transportation
3.90%
$315
Apparel
2.83%
$231
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$299
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $164 by
1960, on its way to $299 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $299; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1975: $100 is worth $299 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1975/