$100 in 1945 is worth $1,395 in 2018,
because prices increased 1295.0% over that period, an average of
3.68% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,395
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1295.0%
Average inflation rate
3.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,395
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,295
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1945 → 2018
$1,395
$100 in 2018 → 1945
$7.17
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2018
Between 1945 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1295.0%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2018: the 1945 dollar
lost 92.8% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 2018 at the same ratio, 13.95: $1,000 becomes
$13,950, and $10,000 becomes $139,504.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2018
$1.00
$13.95
$5.00
$69.75
$10.00
$140
$20.00
$279
$50.00
$698
$100
$1,395
$500
$6,975
$1,000
$13,950
$5,000
$69,752
$10,000
$139,504
$100,000
$1,395,039
$1,000,000
$13,950,389
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2018
Between 1945 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 3973.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 300.2%, against 1295.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$1,395
Medical care
5.21%
$4,073
Food
3.75%
$1,466
Transportation
3.60%
$1,325
Apparel
1.92%
$400
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 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,395
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $458 by
1980, on its way to $1,395 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,395; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,395 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2018/