$100 in 1945 is worth $872 in 1996,
because prices increased 771.7% over that period, an average of
4.34% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$872
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
771.7%
Average inflation rate
4.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$872
Price difference ($100 base)
$772
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1945 → 1996
$872
$100 in 1996 → 1945
$11.47
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1996
Between 1945 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 771.7%, which works out to an average of
4.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1996: the 1945 dollar
lost 88.5% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1996 at the same ratio, 8.72: $1,000 becomes
$8,717, and $10,000 becomes $87,167.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1996
$1.00
$8.72
$5.00
$43.58
$10.00
$87.17
$20.00
$174
$50.00
$436
$100
$872
$500
$4,358
$1,000
$8,717
$5,000
$43,583
$10,000
$87,167
$100,000
$871,667
$1,000,000
$8,716,667
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1996
Between 1945 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 1817.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 319.4%, against 771.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.34%
$872
Medical care
5.96%
$1,918
Transportation
4.40%
$899
Food
4.37%
$886
Apparel
2.85%
$419
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 1996
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 1945–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$872
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $225 by
1971, on its way to $872 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $872; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1996: $100 is worth $872 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1996/