$100 in 1946 is worth $607 in 1988,
because prices increased 506.7% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$607
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
506.7%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$607
Price difference ($100 base)
$507
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1946 → 1988
$607
$100 in 1988 → 1946
$16.48
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1988
Between 1946 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 506.7%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1988: the 1946 dollar
lost 83.5% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1988 at the same ratio, 6.07: $1,000 becomes
$6,067, and $10,000 becomes $60,667.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1988
$1.00
$6.07
$5.00
$30.33
$10.00
$60.67
$20.00
$121
$50.00
$303
$100
$607
$500
$3,033
$1,000
$6,067
$5,000
$30,333
$10,000
$60,667
$100,000
$606,667
$1,000,000
$6,066,667
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1988
Between 1946 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 1008.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 235.5%, against 506.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$607
Medical care
5.90%
$1,109
Transportation
4.56%
$651
Food
4.35%
$597
Apparel
2.92%
$335
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 1988
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 1946–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$607
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $166 by
1966, on its way to $607 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $607; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1988: $100 is worth $607 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1988/