$100 in 1946 is worth $511 in 1983,
because prices increased 410.8% over that period, an average of
4.51% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$511
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
410.8%
Average inflation rate
4.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$511
Price difference ($100 base)
$411
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1946 → 1983
$511
$100 in 1983 → 1946
$19.58
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1983
Between 1946 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 410.8%, which works out to an average of
4.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1983: the 1946 dollar
lost 80.4% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1983 at the same ratio, 5.11: $1,000 becomes
$5,108, and $10,000 becomes $51,077.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1983
$1.00
$5.11
$5.00
$25.54
$10.00
$51.08
$20.00
$102
$50.00
$255
$100
$511
$500
$2,554
$1,000
$5,108
$5,000
$25,538
$10,000
$51,077
$100,000
$510,769
$1,000,000
$5,107,692
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1983
Between 1946 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 704.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.3%, against 410.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.51%
$511
Medical care
5.80%
$805
Transportation
4.94%
$595
Food
4.46%
$502
Apparel
2.93%
$291
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$511
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $159 by
1964, on its way to $511 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $511; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1983: $100 is worth $511 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1983/