$100 in 1945 is worth $1,022 in 2003,
because prices increased 922.2% over that period, an average of
4.09% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,022
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
922.2%
Average inflation rate
4.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,022
Price difference ($100 base)
$922
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1945 → 2003
$1,022
$100 in 2003 → 1945
$9.78
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2003
Between 1945 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 922.2%, which works out to an average of
4.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2003: the 1945 dollar
lost 90.2% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 2003 at the same ratio, 10.22: $1,000 becomes
$10,222, and $10,000 becomes $102,222.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2003
$1.00
$10.22
$5.00
$51.11
$10.00
$102
$20.00
$204
$50.00
$511
$100
$1,022
$500
$5,111
$1,000
$10,222
$5,000
$51,111
$10,000
$102,222
$100,000
$1,022,222
$1,000,000
$10,222,222
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2003
Between 1945 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 2396.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 285.0%, against 922.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.09%
$1,022
Medical care
5.70%
$2,497
Food
4.12%
$1,040
Transportation
4.03%
$991
Apparel
2.35%
$385
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 2003
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 1945–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,022
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $247 by
1973, on its way to $1,022 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,022; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,022 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2003/