$100 in 1945 is worth $803 in 1993,
because prices increased 702.8% over that period, an average of
4.43% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$803
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
702.8%
Average inflation rate
4.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$803
Price difference ($100 base)
$703
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1945 → 1993
$803
$100 in 1993 → 1945
$12.46
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1993
Between 1945 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 702.8%, which works out to an average of
4.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1993: the 1945 dollar
lost 87.5% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1993 at the same ratio, 8.03: $1,000 becomes
$8,028, and $10,000 becomes $80,278.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1993
$1.00
$8.03
$5.00
$40.14
$10.00
$80.28
$20.00
$161
$50.00
$401
$100
$803
$500
$4,014
$1,000
$8,028
$5,000
$40,139
$10,000
$80,278
$100,000
$802,778
$1,000,000
$8,027,778
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1993
Between 1945 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 1592.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 325.8%, against 702.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.43%
$803
Medical care
6.07%
$1,692
Transportation
4.48%
$820
Food
4.47%
$814
Apparel
3.06%
$426
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 1993
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 1945–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$803
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $204 by
1969, on its way to $803 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $803; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1993: $100 is worth $803 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1993/