$100 in 1945 is worth $553 in 1983,
because prices increased 453.3% over that period, an average of
4.60% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$553
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
453.3%
Average inflation rate
4.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$553
Price difference ($100 base)
$453
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1945 → 1983
$553
$100 in 1983 → 1945
$18.07
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1983
Between 1945 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 453.3%, which works out to an average of
4.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1983: the 1945 dollar
lost 81.9% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1983 at the same ratio, 5.53: $1,000 becomes
$5,533, and $10,000 becomes $55,333.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1983
$1.00
$5.53
$5.00
$27.67
$10.00
$55.33
$20.00
$111
$50.00
$277
$100
$553
$500
$2,767
$1,000
$5,533
$5,000
$27,667
$10,000
$55,333
$100,000
$553,333
$1,000,000
$5,533,333
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1983
Between 1945 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 745.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 219.1%, against 453.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.60%
$553
Medical care
5.78%
$845
Transportation
4.94%
$625
Food
4.71%
$575
Apparel
3.10%
$319
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 1983
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 1945–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$553
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $170 by
1963, on its way to $553 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $553; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1983: $100 is worth $553 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1983/