$100 in 1945 is worth $906 in 1998,
because prices increased 805.6% over that period, an average of
4.24% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$906
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
805.6%
Average inflation rate
4.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$906
Price difference ($100 base)
$806
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1945 → 1998
$906
$100 in 1998 → 1945
$11.04
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1998
Between 1945 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 805.6%, which works out to an average of
4.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1998: the 1945 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1998 at the same ratio, 9.06: $1,000 becomes
$9,056, and $10,000 becomes $90,556.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1998
$1.00
$9.06
$5.00
$45.28
$10.00
$90.56
$20.00
$181
$50.00
$453
$100
$906
$500
$4,528
$1,000
$9,056
$5,000
$45,278
$10,000
$90,556
$100,000
$905,556
$1,000,000
$9,055,556
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1998
Between 1945 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1934.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 323.6%, against 805.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.24%
$906
Medical care
5.85%
$2,034
Food
4.30%
$929
Transportation
4.21%
$891
Apparel
2.76%
$424
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 1998
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 1945–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$906
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $225 by
1971, on its way to $906 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $906; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1998: $100 is worth $906 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1998/