$100 in 1946 is worth $823 in 1997,
because prices increased 723.1% over that period, an average of
4.22% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$823
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
723.1%
Average inflation rate
4.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$823
Price difference ($100 base)
$723
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1946 → 1997
$823
$100 in 1997 → 1946
$12.15
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1997
Between 1946 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 723.1%, which works out to an average of
4.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1997: the 1946 dollar
lost 87.9% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1997 at the same ratio, 8.23: $1,000 becomes
$8,231, and $10,000 becomes $82,308.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1997
$1.00
$8.23
$5.00
$41.15
$10.00
$82.31
$20.00
$165
$50.00
$412
$100
$823
$500
$4,115
$1,000
$8,231
$5,000
$41,154
$10,000
$82,308
$100,000
$823,077
$1,000,000
$8,230,769
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1997
Between 1946 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 1776.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 286.3%, against 723.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.22%
$823
Medical care
5.92%
$1,877
Transportation
4.32%
$864
Food
4.15%
$794
Apparel
2.69%
$386
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 1997
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 1946–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$823
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $214 by
1972, on its way to $823 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $823; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1997: $100 is worth $823 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1997/