$100 in 1945 is worth $1,317 in 2015,
because prices increased 1216.8% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,317
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1216.8%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,317
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,217
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1945 → 2015
$1,317
$100 in 2015 → 1945
$7.59
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2015
Between 1945 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1216.8%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2015: the 1945 dollar
lost 92.4% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2015 at the same ratio, 13.17: $1,000 becomes
$13,168, and $10,000 becomes $131,676.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2015
$1.00
$13.17
$5.00
$65.84
$10.00
$132
$20.00
$263
$50.00
$658
$100
$1,317
$500
$6,584
$1,000
$13,168
$5,000
$65,838
$10,000
$131,676
$100,000
$1,316,761
$1,000,000
$13,167,611
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2015
Between 1945 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 3654.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 301.0%, against 1216.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$1,317
Medical care
5.32%
$3,754
Food
3.87%
$1,429
Transportation
3.68%
$1,252
Apparel
2.00%
$401
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 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,317
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $458 by
1980, on its way to $1,317 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,317; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,317 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2015/