$100 in 1946 is worth $148 in 1958,
because prices increased 48.2% over that period, an average of
3.33% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$148
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
48.2%
Average inflation rate
3.33% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$148
Price difference ($100 base)
$48.21
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1946 → 1958
$148
$100 in 1958 → 1946
$67.47
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1958
Between 1946 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 48.2%, which works out to an average of
3.33% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1958: the 1946 dollar
lost 32.5% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.48: $1,000 becomes
$1,482, and $10,000 becomes $14,821.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.48
$5.00
$7.41
$10.00
$14.82
$20.00
$29.64
$50.00
$74.10
$100
$148
$500
$741
$1,000
$1,482
$5,000
$7,410
$10,000
$14,821
$100,000
$148,205
$1,000,000
$1,482,051
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1958
Between 1946 and 1958, transportation rose the most, up 71.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 29.7%, against 48.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.33%
$148
Transportation
4.59%
$171
Medical care
4.25%
$165
Food
3.58%
$153
Apparel
2.19%
$130
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 1958
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.44% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.30% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1958 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1946, at end
1946–1950
5.44%
23.6%
$124
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$148
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $136 by
1952, on its way to $148 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $148; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1958: $100 is worth $148 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1958/