$100 in 1946 is worth $805 in 1996,
because prices increased 704.6% over that period, an average of
4.26% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$805
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
704.6%
Average inflation rate
4.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$805
Price difference ($100 base)
$705
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1946 → 1996
$805
$100 in 1996 → 1946
$12.43
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1996
Between 1946 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 704.6%, which works out to an average of
4.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1996: the 1946 dollar
lost 87.6% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1996 at the same ratio, 8.05: $1,000 becomes
$8,046, and $10,000 becomes $80,462.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1996
$1.00
$8.05
$5.00
$40.23
$10.00
$80.46
$20.00
$161
$50.00
$402
$100
$805
$500
$4,023
$1,000
$8,046
$5,000
$40,231
$10,000
$80,462
$100,000
$804,615
$1,000,000
$8,046,154
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1996
Between 1946 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 1725.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 282.8%, against 704.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.26%
$805
Medical care
5.98%
$1,826
Transportation
4.39%
$856
Food
4.18%
$774
Apparel
2.72%
$383
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 1996
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 1946–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$805
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $199 by
1970, on its way to $805 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $805; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1996: $100 is worth $805 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1996/