$100 in 1946 is worth $670 in 1990,
because prices increased 570.3% over that period, an average of
4.42% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$670
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
570.3%
Average inflation rate
4.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$670
Price difference ($100 base)
$570
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1946 → 1990
$670
$100 in 1990 → 1946
$14.92
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1990
Between 1946 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 570.3%, which works out to an average of
4.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1990: the 1946 dollar
lost 85.1% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1990 at the same ratio, 6.70: $1,000 becomes
$6,703, and $10,000 becomes $67,026.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1990
$1.00
$6.70
$5.00
$33.51
$10.00
$67.03
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$335
$100
$670
$500
$3,351
$1,000
$6,703
$5,000
$33,513
$10,000
$67,026
$100,000
$670,256
$1,000,000
$6,702,564
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1990
Between 1946 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 1202.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 260.8%, against 570.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.42%
$670
Medical care
6.01%
$1,302
Transportation
4.59%
$722
Food
4.41%
$669
Apparel
2.96%
$361
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 1990
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 1946–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$670
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $178 by
1968, on its way to $670 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $670; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1990: $100 is worth $670 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1990/