$100 in 1945 is worth $657 in 1988,
because prices increased 557.2% over that period, an average of
4.48% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$657
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
557.2%
Average inflation rate
4.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$657
Price difference ($100 base)
$557
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1945 → 1988
$657
$100 in 1988 → 1945
$15.22
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1988
Between 1945 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 557.2%, which works out to an average of
4.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1988: the 1945 dollar
lost 84.8% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1988 at the same ratio, 6.57: $1,000 becomes
$6,572, and $10,000 becomes $65,722.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1988
$1.00
$6.57
$5.00
$32.86
$10.00
$65.72
$20.00
$131
$50.00
$329
$100
$657
$500
$3,286
$1,000
$6,572
$5,000
$32,861
$10,000
$65,722
$100,000
$657,222
$1,000,000
$6,572,222
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1988
Between 1945 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 1064.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 267.5%, against 557.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.48%
$657
Medical care
5.88%
$1,165
Transportation
4.57%
$684
Food
4.57%
$683
Apparel
3.07%
$368
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 1988
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 1945–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$657
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $186 by
1967, on its way to $657 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $657; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1988: $100 is worth $657 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1988/