$100 in 1946 is worth $782 in 1995,
because prices increased 681.5% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$782
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
681.5%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$782
Price difference ($100 base)
$682
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1946 → 1995
$782
$100 in 1995 → 1946
$12.80
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1995
Between 1946 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 681.5%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1995: the 1946 dollar
lost 87.2% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1995 at the same ratio, 7.82: $1,000 becomes
$7,815, and $10,000 becomes $78,154.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1995
$1.00
$7.82
$5.00
$39.08
$10.00
$78.15
$20.00
$156
$50.00
$391
$100
$782
$500
$3,908
$1,000
$7,815
$5,000
$39,077
$10,000
$78,154
$100,000
$781,538
$1,000,000
$7,815,385
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1995
Between 1946 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1664.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 283.7%, against 681.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$782
Medical care
6.03%
$1,764
Transportation
4.42%
$833
Food
4.20%
$749
Apparel
2.78%
$384
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 1995
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 1946–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$782
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $199 by
1970, on its way to $782 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $782; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1995: $100 is worth $782 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1995/