$100 in 1946 is worth $124 in 1948,
because prices increased 23.6% over that period, an average of
11.17% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$124
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
23.6%
Average inflation rate
11.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$124
Price difference ($100 base)
$23.59
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1946 → 1948
$124
$100 in 1948 → 1946
$80.91
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1948
Between 1946 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 23.6%, which works out to an average of
11.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.81 buys in 1948: the 1946 dollar
lost 19.1% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1946 amount converts to 1948 at the same ratio, 1.24: $1,000 becomes
$1,236, and $10,000 becomes $12,359.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.24
$5.00
$6.18
$10.00
$12.36
$20.00
$24.72
$50.00
$61.79
$100
$124
$500
$618
$1,000
$1,236
$5,000
$6,179
$10,000
$12,359
$100,000
$123,590
$1,000,000
$1,235,897
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1948
Between 1946 and 1948, food rose the most, up 31.8%, while medical care rose the least, up 15.2%, against 23.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
11.17%
$124
Food
14.81%
$132
Apparel
11.15%
$124
Transportation
11.06%
$123
Medical care
7.33%
$115
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1946: 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 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $114 by
1947, on its way to $124 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 1946 had the buying
power of $124; 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 1946 to 1948: $100 is worth $124 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1948/