$100 in 1945 is worth $458 in 1980,
because prices increased 357.8% over that period, an average of
4.44% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$458
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
357.8%
Average inflation rate
4.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$458
Price difference ($100 base)
$358
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1945 → 1980
$458
$100 in 1980 → 1945
$21.84
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1980
Between 1945 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 357.8%, which works out to an average of
4.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1980: the 1945 dollar
lost 78.2% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1980 at the same ratio, 4.58: $1,000 becomes
$4,578, and $10,000 becomes $45,778.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1980
$1.00
$4.58
$5.00
$22.89
$10.00
$45.78
$20.00
$91.56
$50.00
$229
$100
$458
$500
$2,289
$1,000
$4,578
$5,000
$22,889
$10,000
$45,778
$100,000
$457,778
$1,000,000
$4,577,778
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1980
Between 1945 and 1980, medical care rose the most, up 529.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 189.5%, against 357.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.44%
$458
Medical care
5.40%
$629
Transportation
4.84%
$523
Food
4.72%
$502
Apparel
3.08%
$289
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 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$458
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $170 by
1963, on its way to $458 in 1980; 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: 1980
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $458; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1980: $100 is worth $458 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1980/