$100 in 1946 is worth $292 in 1976,
because prices increased 191.8% over that period, an average of
3.63% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$292
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
191.8%
Average inflation rate
3.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$292
Price difference ($100 base)
$192
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1946 → 1976
$292
$100 in 1976 → 1946
$34.27
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1976
Between 1946 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 191.8%, which works out to an average of
3.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1976: the 1946 dollar
lost 65.7% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1976 at the same ratio, 2.92: $1,000 becomes
$2,918, and $10,000 becomes $29,179.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1976
$1.00
$2.92
$5.00
$14.59
$10.00
$29.18
$20.00
$58.36
$50.00
$146
$100
$292
$500
$1,459
$1,000
$2,918
$5,000
$14,590
$10,000
$29,179
$100,000
$291,795
$1,000,000
$2,917,949
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1976
Between 1946 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 316.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 118.6%, against 191.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.63%
$292
Medical care
4.87%
$416
Transportation
4.06%
$330
Food
3.86%
$311
Apparel
2.64%
$219
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 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$292
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $153 by
1961, on its way to $292 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $292; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1976: $100 is worth $292 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1976/