$100 in 1945 is worth $1,333 in 2016,
because prices increased 1233.4% over that period, an average of
3.72% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,333
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1233.4%
Average inflation rate
3.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,333
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,233
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1945 → 2016
$1,333
$100 in 2016 → 1945
$7.50
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2016
Between 1945 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1233.4%, which works out to an average of
3.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2016: the 1945 dollar
lost 92.5% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 2016 at the same ratio, 13.33: $1,000 becomes
$13,334, and $10,000 becomes $133,337.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2016
$1.00
$13.33
$5.00
$66.67
$10.00
$133
$20.00
$267
$50.00
$667
$100
$1,333
$500
$6,667
$1,000
$13,334
$5,000
$66,669
$10,000
$133,337
$100,000
$1,333,372
$1,000,000
$13,333,722
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2016
Between 1945 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 3796.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 301.4%, against 1233.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.72%
$1,333
Medical care
5.29%
$3,896
Food
3.82%
$1,433
Transportation
3.59%
$1,226
Apparel
1.98%
$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 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,333
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $458 by
1980, on its way to $1,333 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,333; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,333 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2016/