$100 in 1945 is worth $757 in 1991,
because prices increased 656.7% over that period, an average of
4.50% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$757
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
656.7%
Average inflation rate
4.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$757
Price difference ($100 base)
$657
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1945 → 1991
$757
$100 in 1991 → 1945
$13.22
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1991
Between 1945 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 656.7%, which works out to an average of
4.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1991: the 1945 dollar
lost 86.8% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1991 at the same ratio, 7.57: $1,000 becomes
$7,567, and $10,000 becomes $75,667.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1991
$1.00
$7.57
$5.00
$37.83
$10.00
$75.67
$20.00
$151
$50.00
$378
$100
$757
$500
$3,783
$1,000
$7,567
$5,000
$37,833
$10,000
$75,667
$100,000
$756,667
$1,000,000
$7,566,667
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1991
Between 1945 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 1387.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 309.9%, against 656.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.50%
$757
Medical care
6.04%
$1,487
Food
4.59%
$788
Transportation
4.56%
$779
Apparel
3.11%
$410
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 1991
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 1945–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$726
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$757
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $186 by
1967, on its way to $757 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $757; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1991: $100 is worth $757 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1991/