$100 in 1945 is worth $1,211 in 2010,
because prices increased 1111.4% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,211
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1111.4%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,211
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,111
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1945 → 2010
$1,211
$100 in 2010 → 1945
$8.25
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2010
Between 1945 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1111.4%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2010: the 1945 dollar
lost 91.7% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 2010 at the same ratio, 12.11: $1,000 becomes
$12,114, and $10,000 becomes $121,142.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2010
$1.00
$12.11
$5.00
$60.57
$10.00
$121
$20.00
$242
$50.00
$606
$100
$1,211
$500
$6,057
$1,000
$12,114
$5,000
$60,571
$10,000
$121,142
$100,000
$1,211,422
$1,000,000
$12,114,222
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2010
Between 1945 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 3164.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 280.6%, against 1111.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$1,211
Medical care
5.51%
$3,264
Food
3.99%
$1,270
Transportation
3.92%
$1,216
Apparel
2.08%
$381
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 2010
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 1945–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,211
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $299 by
1975, on its way to $1,211 in 2010; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,211; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,211 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2010/