$100 in 1945 is worth $823 in 1994,
because prices increased 723.3% over that period, an average of
4.40% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$823
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
723.3%
Average inflation rate
4.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$823
Price difference ($100 base)
$723
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1945 → 1994
$823
$100 in 1994 → 1945
$12.15
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1994
Between 1945 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 723.3%, which works out to an average of
4.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1994: the 1945 dollar
lost 87.9% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1994 at the same ratio, 8.23: $1,000 becomes
$8,233, and $10,000 becomes $82,333.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1994
$1.00
$8.23
$5.00
$41.17
$10.00
$82.33
$20.00
$165
$50.00
$412
$100
$823
$500
$4,117
$1,000
$8,233
$5,000
$41,167
$10,000
$82,333
$100,000
$823,333
$1,000,000
$8,233,333
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1994
Between 1945 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 1673.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 324.8%, against 723.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.40%
$823
Medical care
6.04%
$1,773
Transportation
4.45%
$845
Food
4.42%
$834
Apparel
3.00%
$425
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 1994
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 1945–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$823
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $204 by
1969, on its way to $823 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $823; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1994: $100 is worth $823 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1994/