$100 in 1944 is worth $137 in 1948,
because prices increased 36.9% over that period, an average of
8.17% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$137
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
36.9%
Average inflation rate
8.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$137
Price difference ($100 base)
$36.93
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1944 → 1948
$137
$100 in 1948 → 1944
$73.03
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1948
Between 1944 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 36.9%, which works out to an average of
8.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1948: the 1944 dollar
lost 27.0% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1944 amount converts to 1948 at the same ratio, 1.37: $1,000 becomes
$1,369, and $10,000 becomes $13,693.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.37
$5.00
$6.85
$10.00
$13.69
$20.00
$27.39
$50.00
$68.47
$100
$137
$500
$685
$1,000
$1,369
$5,000
$6,847
$10,000
$13,693
$100,000
$136,932
$1,000,000
$1,369,318
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1948
Between 1944 and 1948, food rose the most, up 54.4%, while medical care rose the least, up 24.1%, against 36.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.17%
$137
Food
11.48%
$154
Apparel
9.28%
$143
Transportation
6.69%
$130
Medical care
5.55%
$124
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1944: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $111 by
1946, on its way to $137 in 1948; 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 the smallest rise was 2.3% in 1945.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $137; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1948: $100 is worth $137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1948/