$100 in 1946 is worth $583 in 1987,
because prices increased 482.6% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$583
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
482.6%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$583
Price difference ($100 base)
$483
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1946 → 1987
$583
$100 in 1987 → 1946
$17.17
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1987
Between 1946 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 482.6%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1987: the 1946 dollar
lost 82.8% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1987 at the same ratio, 5.83: $1,000 becomes
$5,826, and $10,000 becomes $58,256.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1987
$1.00
$5.83
$5.00
$29.13
$10.00
$58.26
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$291
$100
$583
$500
$2,913
$1,000
$5,826
$5,000
$29,128
$10,000
$58,256
$100,000
$582,564
$1,000,000
$5,825,641
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1987
Between 1946 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 940.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 221.5%, against 482.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$583
Medical care
5.88%
$1,041
Transportation
4.60%
$631
Food
4.35%
$573
Apparel
2.89%
$322
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 1987
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 1946–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$583
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $166 by
1966, on its way to $583 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $583; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1987: $100 is worth $583 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1987/