$100 in 1946 is worth $276 in 1975,
because prices increased 175.9% over that period, an average of
3.56% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$276
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
175.9%
Average inflation rate
3.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$276
Price difference ($100 base)
$176
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1946 → 1975
$276
$100 in 1975 → 1946
$36.25
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1975
Between 1946 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 175.9%, which works out to an average of
3.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1975: the 1946 dollar
lost 63.8% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1975 at the same ratio, 2.76: $1,000 becomes
$2,759, and $10,000 becomes $27,590.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1975
$1.00
$2.76
$5.00
$13.79
$10.00
$27.59
$20.00
$55.18
$50.00
$138
$100
$276
$500
$1,379
$1,000
$2,759
$5,000
$13,795
$10,000
$27,590
$100,000
$275,897
$1,000,000
$2,758,974
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1975
Between 1946 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 280.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 110.8%, against 175.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.56%
$276
Medical care
4.71%
$380
Food
3.89%
$302
Transportation
3.86%
$300
Apparel
2.60%
$211
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$276
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $152 by
1960, on its way to $276 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $276; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1975: $100 is worth $276 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1975/