$100 in 1945 is worth $631 in 1987,
because prices increased 531.1% over that period, an average of
4.48% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$631
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
531.1%
Average inflation rate
4.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$631
Price difference ($100 base)
$531
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1945 → 1987
$631
$100 in 1987 → 1945
$15.85
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1987
Between 1945 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 531.1%, which works out to an average of
4.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1987: the 1945 dollar
lost 84.2% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1987 at the same ratio, 6.31: $1,000 becomes
$6,311, and $10,000 becomes $63,111.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1987
$1.00
$6.31
$5.00
$31.56
$10.00
$63.11
$20.00
$126
$50.00
$316
$100
$631
$500
$3,156
$1,000
$6,311
$5,000
$31,556
$10,000
$63,111
$100,000
$631,111
$1,000,000
$6,311,111
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1987
Between 1945 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 993.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 252.2%, against 531.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.48%
$631
Medical care
5.86%
$1,093
Transportation
4.61%
$663
Food
4.58%
$656
Apparel
3.04%
$352
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 1987
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 1945–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$631
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $175 by
1965, on its way to $631 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $631; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1987: $100 is worth $631 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1987/