$100 in 1945 is worth $577 in 1984,
because prices increased 477.2% over that period, an average of
4.60% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$577
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
477.2%
Average inflation rate
4.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$577
Price difference ($100 base)
$477
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1945 → 1984
$577
$100 in 1984 → 1945
$17.32
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1984
Between 1945 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 477.2%, which works out to an average of
4.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1984: the 1945 dollar
lost 82.7% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1984 at the same ratio, 5.77: $1,000 becomes
$5,772, and $10,000 becomes $57,722.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1984
$1.00
$5.77
$5.00
$28.86
$10.00
$57.72
$20.00
$115
$50.00
$289
$100
$577
$500
$2,886
$1,000
$5,772
$5,000
$28,861
$10,000
$57,722
$100,000
$577,222
$1,000,000
$5,772,222
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1984
Between 1945 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 797.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 225.2%, against 477.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.60%
$577
Medical care
5.79%
$897
Transportation
4.93%
$652
Food
4.69%
$597
Apparel
3.07%
$325
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 1984
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 1945–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$577
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $175 by
1965, on its way to $577 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $577; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1984: $100 is worth $577 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1984/