$100 in 1945 is worth $1,315 in 2014,
because prices increased 1215.2% over that period, an average of
3.80% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,315
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1215.2%
Average inflation rate
3.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,315
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,215
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1945 → 2014
$1,315
$100 in 2014 → 1945
$7.60
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2014
Between 1945 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1215.2%, which works out to an average of
3.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2014: the 1945 dollar
lost 92.4% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2014 at the same ratio, 13.15: $1,000 becomes
$13,152, and $10,000 becomes $131,520.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2014
$1.00
$13.15
$5.00
$65.76
$10.00
$132
$20.00
$263
$50.00
$658
$100
$1,315
$500
$6,576
$1,000
$13,152
$5,000
$65,760
$10,000
$131,520
$100,000
$1,315,200
$1,000,000
$13,152,000
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2014
Between 1945 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 3557.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 306.1%, against 1215.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.80%
$1,315
Medical care
5.36%
$3,658
Food
3.90%
$1,403
Transportation
3.85%
$1,358
Apparel
2.05%
$406
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 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,315
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $458 by
1980, on its way to $1,315 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,315; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,315 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2014/