$100 in 1945 is worth $337 in 1977,
because prices increased 236.7% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$337
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
236.7%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$337
Price difference ($100 base)
$237
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1945 → 1977
$337
$100 in 1977 → 1945
$29.70
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1977
Between 1945 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 236.7%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1977: the 1945 dollar
lost 70.3% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1977 at the same ratio, 3.37: $1,000 becomes
$3,367, and $10,000 becomes $33,667.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1977
$1.00
$3.37
$5.00
$16.83
$10.00
$33.67
$20.00
$67.33
$50.00
$168
$100
$337
$500
$1,683
$1,000
$3,367
$5,000
$16,833
$10,000
$33,667
$100,000
$336,667
$1,000,000
$3,366,667
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1977
Between 1945 and 1977, medical care rose the most, up 379.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 150.3%, against 236.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$337
Medical care
5.02%
$479
Food
4.25%
$379
Transportation
4.18%
$371
Apparel
2.91%
$250
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 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$337
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $166 by
1961, on its way to $337 in 1977; 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: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $337; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1977: $100 is worth $337 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1977/