$100 in 1946 is worth $698 in 1991,
because prices increased 598.5% over that period, an average of
4.41% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$698
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
598.5%
Average inflation rate
4.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$698
Price difference ($100 base)
$598
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1946 → 1991
$698
$100 in 1991 → 1946
$14.32
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1991
Between 1946 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 598.5%, which works out to an average of
4.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1991: the 1946 dollar
lost 85.7% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1991 at the same ratio, 6.98: $1,000 becomes
$6,985, and $10,000 becomes $69,846.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1991
$1.00
$6.98
$5.00
$34.92
$10.00
$69.85
$20.00
$140
$50.00
$349
$100
$698
$500
$3,492
$1,000
$6,985
$5,000
$34,923
$10,000
$69,846
$100,000
$698,462
$1,000,000
$6,984,615
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1991
Between 1946 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 1316.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 274.1%, against 598.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.41%
$698
Medical care
6.07%
$1,416
Transportation
4.55%
$741
Food
4.38%
$688
Apparel
2.98%
$374
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 1991
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 1946–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$698
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $178 by
1968, on its way to $698 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $698; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1991: $100 is worth $698 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1991/