$100 in 1945 is worth $609 in 1986,
because prices increased 508.9% over that period, an average of
4.50% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$609
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
508.9%
Average inflation rate
4.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$609
Price difference ($100 base)
$509
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1945 → 1986
$609
$100 in 1986 → 1945
$16.42
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1986
Between 1945 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 508.9%, which works out to an average of
4.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1986: the 1945 dollar
lost 83.6% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1986 at the same ratio, 6.09: $1,000 becomes
$6,089, and $10,000 becomes $60,889.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1986
$1.00
$6.09
$5.00
$30.44
$10.00
$60.89
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$304
$100
$609
$500
$3,044
$1,000
$6,089
$5,000
$30,444
$10,000
$60,889
$100,000
$608,889
$1,000,000
$6,088,889
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1986
Between 1945 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 925.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 237.3%, against 508.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.50%
$609
Medical care
5.84%
$1,025
Transportation
4.65%
$643
Food
4.59%
$630
Apparel
3.01%
$337
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 1986
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 1945–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$609
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $175 by
1965, on its way to $609 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $609; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1986: $100 is worth $609 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1986/