$100 in 1946 is worth $133 in 1951,
because prices increased 33.3% over that period, an average of
5.92% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$133
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.3%
Average inflation rate
5.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$133
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.33
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1946 → 1951
$133
$100 in 1951 → 1946
$75.00
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1951
Between 1946 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.3%, which works out to an average of
5.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1951: the 1946 dollar
lost 25.0% of its purchasing power over
these 5 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.33: $1,000 becomes
$1,333, and $10,000 becomes $13,333.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.33
$5.00
$6.67
$10.00
$13.33
$20.00
$26.67
$50.00
$66.67
$100
$133
$500
$667
$1,000
$1,333
$5,000
$6,667
$10,000
$13,333
$100,000
$133,333
$1,000,000
$1,333,333
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1951
Between 1946 and 1951, transportation rose the most, up 44.3%, while medical care rose the least, up 27.2%, against 33.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.92%
$133
Transportation
7.61%
$144
Food
7.33%
$142
Apparel
5.00%
$128
Medical care
4.93%
$127
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–).
Decade by decade: 1946 to 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (5.44% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1946, at end
1946–1950
5.44%
23.6%
$124
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$133
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $124 by
1948, on its way to $133 in 1951; 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.
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $133; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1951: $100 is worth $133 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1951/