$100 in 1945 is worth $999 in 2002,
because prices increased 899.4% over that period, an average of
4.12% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$999
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
899.4%
Average inflation rate
4.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$999
Price difference ($100 base)
$899
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1945 → 2002
$999
$100 in 2002 → 1945
$10.01
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2002
Between 1945 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 899.4%, which works out to an average of
4.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2002: the 1945 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2002 at the same ratio, 9.99: $1,000 becomes
$9,994, and $10,000 becomes $99,944.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2002
$1.00
$9.99
$5.00
$49.97
$10.00
$99.94
$20.00
$200
$50.00
$500
$100
$999
$500
$4,997
$1,000
$9,994
$5,000
$49,972
$10,000
$99,944
$100,000
$999,444
$1,000,000
$9,994,444
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2002
Between 1945 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 2300.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 294.9%, against 899.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.12%
$999
Medical care
5.73%
$2,400
Food
4.16%
$1,018
Transportation
4.05%
$962
Apparel
2.44%
$395
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 2002
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 1945–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$999
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $247 by
1973, on its way to $999 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $999; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2002: $100 is worth $999 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2002/