$100 in 1945 is worth $892 in 1997,
because prices increased 791.7% over that period, an average of
4.30% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$892
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
791.7%
Average inflation rate
4.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$892
Price difference ($100 base)
$792
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1945 → 1997
$892
$100 in 1997 → 1945
$11.21
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1997
Between 1945 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 791.7%, which works out to an average of
4.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1997: the 1945 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1997 at the same ratio, 8.92: $1,000 becomes
$8,917, and $10,000 becomes $89,167.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1997
$1.00
$8.92
$5.00
$44.58
$10.00
$89.17
$20.00
$178
$50.00
$446
$100
$892
$500
$4,458
$1,000
$8,917
$5,000
$44,583
$10,000
$89,167
$100,000
$891,667
$1,000,000
$8,916,667
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1997
Between 1945 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 1871.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 323.2%, against 791.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.30%
$892
Medical care
5.90%
$1,971
Food
4.34%
$909
Transportation
4.33%
$908
Apparel
2.81%
$423
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 1997
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 1945–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$892
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $225 by
1971, on its way to $892 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $892; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1997: $100 is worth $892 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1997/