$100 in 1945 is worth $1,693 in 2023,
because prices increased 1592.8% over that period, an average of
3.69% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$1,693
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1592.8%
Average inflation rate
3.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,693
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,593
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1945 → 2023
$1,693
$100 in 2023 → 1945
$5.91
What happened to prices between 1945 and 2023
Between 1945 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1592.8%, which works out to an average of
3.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2023: the 1945 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2023 at the same ratio, 16.93: $1,000 becomes
$16,928, and $10,000 becomes $169,279.
Amount in 1945
Value in 2023
$1.00
$16.93
$5.00
$84.64
$10.00
$169
$20.00
$339
$50.00
$846
$100
$1,693
$500
$8,464
$1,000
$16,928
$5,000
$84,639
$10,000
$169,279
$100,000
$1,692,789
$1,000,000
$16,927,889
Inflation by spending category, 1945–2023
Between 1945 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 4514.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 315.9%, against 1592.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.69%
$1,693
Medical care
5.04%
$4,614
Food
3.82%
$1,867
Transportation
3.68%
$1,679
Apparel
1.84%
$416
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 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,438
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,693
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $598 by
1985, on its way to $1,693 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $1,693; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1945 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,693 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-2023/