$100 in 1945 is worth $1,276 in 2012,
because prices increased 1175.5% over that period, an average of
3.87% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,276
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1175.5%
Average inflation rate
3.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,276
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,176
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1945 → 2012
$1,276
$100 in 2012 → 1945
$7.84
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2012
Between 1945 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1175.5%, which works out to an average of
3.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2012: the 1945 dollar
lost 92.2% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2012 at the same ratio, 12.76: $1,000 becomes
$12,755, and $10,000 becomes $127,552.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2012
$1.00
$12.76
$5.00
$63.78
$10.00
$128
$20.00
$255
$50.00
$638
$100
$1,276
$500
$6,378
$1,000
$12,755
$5,000
$63,776
$10,000
$127,552
$100,000
$1,275,522
$1,000,000
$12,755,222
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2012
Between 1945 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 3386.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 302.1%, against 1175.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.87%
$1,276
Medical care
5.44%
$3,487
Transportation
3.98%
$1,367
Food
3.96%
$1,351
Apparel
2.10%
$402
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 2012
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 1945–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,276
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $458 by
1980, on its way to $1,276 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,276; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,276 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2012/