$100 in 1946 is worth $741 in 1993,
because prices increased 641.0% over that period, an average of
4.35% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$741
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
641.0%
Average inflation rate
4.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$741
Price difference ($100 base)
$641
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1946 → 1993
$741
$100 in 1993 → 1946
$13.49
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1993
Between 1946 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 641.0%, which works out to an average of
4.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1993: the 1946 dollar
lost 86.5% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1993 at the same ratio, 7.41: $1,000 becomes
$7,410, and $10,000 becomes $74,103.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1993
$1.00
$7.41
$5.00
$37.05
$10.00
$74.10
$20.00
$148
$50.00
$371
$100
$741
$500
$3,705
$1,000
$7,410
$5,000
$37,051
$10,000
$74,103
$100,000
$741,026
$1,000,000
$7,410,256
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1993
Between 1946 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 1511.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 288.7%, against 641.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.35%
$741
Medical care
6.09%
$1,611
Transportation
4.47%
$781
Food
4.26%
$712
Apparel
2.93%
$389
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 1993
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 1946–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$741
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $199 by
1970, on its way to $741 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $741; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1993: $100 is worth $741 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1993/