$100 in 1945 is worth $926 in 1999,
because prices increased 825.6% over that period, an average of
4.21% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$926
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
825.6%
Average inflation rate
4.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$926
Price difference ($100 base)
$826
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1945 → 1999
$926
$100 in 1999 → 1945
$10.80
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1999
Between 1945 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 825.6%, which works out to an average of
4.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1999: the 1945 dollar
lost 89.2% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 1999 at the same ratio, 9.26: $1,000 becomes
$9,256, and $10,000 becomes $92,556.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1999
$1.00
$9.26
$5.00
$46.28
$10.00
$92.56
$20.00
$185
$50.00
$463
$100
$926
$500
$4,628
$1,000
$9,256
$5,000
$46,278
$10,000
$92,556
$100,000
$925,556
$1,000,000
$9,255,556
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1999
Between 1945 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 2005.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 318.2%, against 825.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.21%
$926
Medical care
5.81%
$2,106
Food
4.25%
$949
Transportation
4.17%
$908
Apparel
2.68%
$418
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 1999
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 1945–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$926
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $225 by
1971, on its way to $926 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $926; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 1999: $100 is worth $926 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1999/