$100 in 1946 is worth $836 in 1998,
because prices increased 735.9% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$836
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
735.9%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$836
Price difference ($100 base)
$736
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1946 → 1998
$836
$100 in 1998 → 1946
$11.96
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1998
Between 1946 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 735.9%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1998: the 1946 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1998 at the same ratio, 8.36: $1,000 becomes
$8,359, and $10,000 becomes $83,590.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1998
$1.00
$8.36
$5.00
$41.79
$10.00
$83.59
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$418
$100
$836
$500
$4,179
$1,000
$8,359
$5,000
$41,795
$10,000
$83,590
$100,000
$835,897
$1,000,000
$8,358,974
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1998
Between 1946 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1836.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 286.6%, against 735.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$836
Medical care
5.86%
$1,937
Transportation
4.20%
$848
Food
4.11%
$812
Apparel
2.63%
$387
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 1998
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 1946–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$836
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $214 by
1972, on its way to $836 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $836; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1998: $100 is worth $836 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1998/