$100 in 1946 is worth $253 in 1974,
because prices increased 152.8% over that period, an average of
3.37% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$253
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
152.8%
Average inflation rate
3.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$253
Price difference ($100 base)
$153
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1946 → 1974
$253
$100 in 1974 → 1946
$39.55
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1974
Between 1946 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 152.8%, which works out to an average of
3.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1974: the 1946 dollar
lost 60.4% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1974 at the same ratio, 2.53: $1,000 becomes
$2,528, and $10,000 becomes $25,282.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1974
$1.00
$2.53
$5.00
$12.64
$10.00
$25.28
$20.00
$50.56
$50.00
$126
$100
$253
$500
$1,264
$1,000
$2,528
$5,000
$12,641
$10,000
$25,282
$100,000
$252,821
$1,000,000
$2,528,205
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1974
Between 1946 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 239.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 101.7%, against 152.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.37%
$253
Medical care
4.46%
$339
Food
3.72%
$278
Transportation
3.67%
$274
Apparel
2.54%
$202
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$253
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $152 by
1960, on its way to $253 in 1974; 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 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $253; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1974: $100 is worth $253 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1974/