$100 in 1945 is worth $957 in 2000,
because prices increased 856.7% over that period, an average of
4.19% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$957
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
856.7%
Average inflation rate
4.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$957
Price difference ($100 base)
$857
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1945 → 2000
$957
$100 in 2000 → 1945
$10.45
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2000
Between 1945 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 856.7%, which works out to an average of
4.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2000: the 1945 dollar
lost 89.5% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2000 at the same ratio, 9.57: $1,000 becomes
$9,567, and $10,000 becomes $95,667.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2000
$1.00
$9.57
$5.00
$47.83
$10.00
$95.67
$20.00
$191
$50.00
$478
$100
$957
$500
$4,783
$1,000
$9,567
$5,000
$47,833
$10,000
$95,667
$100,000
$956,667
$1,000,000
$9,566,667
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2000
Between 1945 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 2091.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 312.7%, against 856.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.19%
$957
Medical care
5.77%
$2,192
Food
4.22%
$970
Transportation
4.21%
$964
Apparel
2.61%
$413
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 2000
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 1945–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$957
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $247 by
1973, on its way to $957 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $957; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2000: $100 is worth $957 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2000/