$100 in 1945 is worth $847 in 1995,
because prices increased 746.7% over that period, an average of
4.36% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$847
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
746.7%
Average inflation rate
4.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$847
Price difference ($100 base)
$747
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1945 → 1995
$847
$100 in 1995 → 1945
$11.81
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1995
Between 1945 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 746.7%, which works out to an average of
4.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1995: the 1945 dollar
lost 88.2% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1995 at the same ratio, 8.47: $1,000 becomes
$8,467, and $10,000 becomes $84,667.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1995
$1.00
$8.47
$5.00
$42.33
$10.00
$84.67
$20.00
$169
$50.00
$423
$100
$847
$500
$4,233
$1,000
$8,467
$5,000
$42,333
$10,000
$84,667
$100,000
$846,667
$1,000,000
$8,466,667
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1995
Between 1945 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1752.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 320.4%, against 746.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.36%
$847
Medical care
6.01%
$1,853
Transportation
4.43%
$875
Food
4.39%
$858
Apparel
2.91%
$420
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 1995
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 1945–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$847
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $204 by
1969, on its way to $847 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $847; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1995: $100 is worth $847 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1995/