$100 in 1945 is worth $1,420 in 2019,
because prices increased 1320.3% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,420
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1320.3%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,420
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,320
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1945 → 2019
$1,420
$100 in 2019 → 1945
$7.04
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2019
Between 1945 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1320.3%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2019: the 1945 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2019 at the same ratio, 14.20: $1,000 becomes
$14,203, and $10,000 becomes $142,032.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2019
$1.00
$14.20
$5.00
$71.02
$10.00
$142
$20.00
$284
$50.00
$710
$100
$1,420
$500
$7,102
$1,000
$14,203
$5,000
$71,016
$10,000
$142,032
$100,000
$1,420,317
$1,000,000
$14,203,167
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2019
Between 1945 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 4088.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 295.1%, against 1320.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$1,420
Medical care
5.18%
$4,188
Food
3.72%
$1,493
Transportation
3.55%
$1,321
Apparel
1.87%
$395
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 2019
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 1945–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,420
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $458 by
1980, on its way to $1,420 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,420; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,420 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2019/