$100 in 1945 is worth $505 in 1981,
because prices increased 405.0% over that period, an average of
4.60% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$505
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
405.0%
Average inflation rate
4.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$505
Price difference ($100 base)
$405
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1945 → 1981
$505
$100 in 1981 → 1945
$19.80
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1981
Between 1945 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 405.0%, which works out to an average of
4.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1981: the 1945 dollar
lost 80.2% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1981 at the same ratio, 5.05: $1,000 becomes
$5,050, and $10,000 becomes $50,500.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1981
$1.00
$5.05
$5.00
$25.25
$10.00
$50.50
$20.00
$101
$50.00
$253
$100
$505
$500
$2,525
$1,000
$5,050
$5,000
$25,250
$10,000
$50,500
$100,000
$505,000
$1,000,000
$5,050,000
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1981
Between 1945 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 596.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 203.5%, against 405.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.60%
$505
Medical care
5.54%
$697
Transportation
5.03%
$586
Food
4.80%
$541
Apparel
3.13%
$304
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$505
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $170 by
1963, on its way to $505 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $505; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1981: $100 is worth $505 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1981/