$100 in 1945 is worth $134 in 1948,
because prices increased 33.9% over that period, an average of
10.22% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.9%
Average inflation rate
10.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.89
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1945 → 1948
$134
$100 in 1948 → 1945
$74.69
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1948
Between 1945 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.9%, which works out to an average of
10.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1948: the 1945 dollar
lost 25.3% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,339, and $10,000 becomes $13,389.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.34
$5.00
$6.69
$10.00
$13.39
$20.00
$26.78
$50.00
$66.94
$100
$134
$500
$669
$1,000
$1,339
$5,000
$6,694
$10,000
$13,389
$100,000
$133,889
$1,000,000
$1,338,889
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1948
Between 1945 and 1948, food rose the most, up 50.9%, while medical care rose the least, up 21.0%, against 33.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
10.22%
$134
Food
14.69%
$151
Apparel
10.62%
$135
Transportation
9.02%
$130
Medical care
6.56%
$121
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–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $108 by
1946, on its way to $134 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 8.1% in 1948.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $134; 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 1945 to 1948: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1948/