$100 in 1946 is worth $138 in 1954,
because prices increased 37.9% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$138
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.9%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$138
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.95
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1946 → 1954
$138
$100 in 1954 → 1946
$72.49
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1954
Between 1946 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.9%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1954: the 1946 dollar
lost 27.5% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.38: $1,000 becomes
$1,379, and $10,000 becomes $13,795.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.38
$5.00
$6.90
$10.00
$13.79
$20.00
$27.59
$50.00
$68.97
$100
$138
$500
$690
$1,000
$1,379
$5,000
$6,897
$10,000
$13,795
$100,000
$137,949
$1,000,000
$1,379,487
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1954
Between 1946 and 1954, transportation rose the most, up 56.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 25.3%, against 37.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$138
Transportation
5.74%
$156
Food
4.52%
$142
Medical care
4.52%
$142
Apparel
2.86%
$125
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 1954
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.44% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.79% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1954 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1946, at end
1946–1950
5.44%
23.6%
$124
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$138
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $124 by
1950, on its way to $138 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $138; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1954: $100 is worth $138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1954/