$100 in 1946 is worth $466 in 1981,
because prices increased 366.2% over that period, an average of
4.50% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$466
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
366.2%
Average inflation rate
4.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$466
Price difference ($100 base)
$366
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1946 → 1981
$466
$100 in 1981 → 1946
$21.45
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1981
Between 1946 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 366.2%, which works out to an average of
4.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1981: the 1946 dollar
lost 78.5% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1981 at the same ratio, 4.66: $1,000 becomes
$4,662, and $10,000 becomes $46,615.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1981
$1.00
$4.66
$5.00
$23.31
$10.00
$46.62
$20.00
$93.23
$50.00
$233
$100
$466
$500
$2,331
$1,000
$4,662
$5,000
$23,308
$10,000
$46,615
$100,000
$466,154
$1,000,000
$4,661,538
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1981
Between 1946 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 563.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.0%, against 366.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.50%
$466
Medical care
5.55%
$663
Transportation
5.04%
$558
Food
4.54%
$473
Apparel
2.95%
$277
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$423
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$466
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $159 by
1964, on its way to $466 in 1981; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $466; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1981: $100 is worth $466 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1981/