$100 in 1946 is worth $228 in 1973,
because prices increased 127.7% over that period, an average of
3.09% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$228
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
127.7%
Average inflation rate
3.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$228
Price difference ($100 base)
$128
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1946 → 1973
$228
$100 in 1973 → 1946
$43.92
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1973
Between 1946 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 127.7%, which works out to an average of
3.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1973: the 1946 dollar
lost 56.1% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.28: $1,000 becomes
$2,277, and $10,000 becomes $22,769.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.28
$5.00
$11.38
$10.00
$22.77
$20.00
$45.54
$50.00
$114
$100
$228
$500
$1,138
$1,000
$2,277
$5,000
$11,385
$10,000
$22,769
$100,000
$227,692
$1,000,000
$2,276,923
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1973
Between 1946 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 210.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 87.8%, against 127.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.09%
$228
Medical care
4.28%
$310
Transportation
3.40%
$247
Food
3.35%
$243
Apparel
2.36%
$188
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 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.44% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1946, at end
1946–1950
5.44%
23.6%
$124
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$152
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$199
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$228
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $149 by
1959, on its way to $228 in 1973; 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 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $228; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1973: $100 is worth $228 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1973/