$100 in 1946 is worth $562 in 1986,
because prices increased 462.1% over that period, an average of
4.41% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$562
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
462.1%
Average inflation rate
4.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$562
Price difference ($100 base)
$462
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1946 → 1986
$562
$100 in 1986 → 1946
$17.79
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1986
Between 1946 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 462.1%, which works out to an average of
4.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1986: the 1946 dollar
lost 82.2% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1986 at the same ratio, 5.62: $1,000 becomes
$5,621, and $10,000 becomes $56,205.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1986
$1.00
$5.62
$5.00
$28.10
$10.00
$56.21
$20.00
$112
$50.00
$281
$100
$562
$500
$2,810
$1,000
$5,621
$5,000
$28,103
$10,000
$56,205
$100,000
$562,051
$1,000,000
$5,620,513
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1986
Between 1946 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 876.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 207.8%, against 462.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.41%
$562
Medical care
5.86%
$976
Transportation
4.64%
$613
Food
4.36%
$551
Apparel
2.85%
$308
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 1986
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 1946–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$562
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $166 by
1966, on its way to $562 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $562; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1986: $100 is worth $562 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1986/