$100 in 1945 is worth $316 in 1976,
because prices increased 216.1% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$316
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
216.1%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$316
Price difference ($100 base)
$216
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1945 → 1976
$316
$100 in 1976 → 1945
$31.63
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1976
Between 1945 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 216.1%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1976: the 1945 dollar
lost 68.4% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1976 at the same ratio, 3.16: $1,000 becomes
$3,161, and $10,000 becomes $31,611.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1976
$1.00
$3.16
$5.00
$15.81
$10.00
$31.61
$20.00
$63.22
$50.00
$158
$100
$316
$500
$1,581
$1,000
$3,161
$5,000
$15,806
$10,000
$31,611
$100,000
$316,111
$1,000,000
$3,161,111
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1976
Between 1945 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 337.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 139.5%, against 216.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$316
Medical care
4.87%
$437
Food
4.18%
$356
Transportation
4.09%
$347
Apparel
2.86%
$239
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 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$316
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $166 by
1961, on its way to $316 in 1976; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1976
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $316; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1976: $100 is worth $316 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1976/