$100 in 1946 is worth $854 in 1999,
because prices increased 754.4% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$854
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
754.4%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$854
Price difference ($100 base)
$754
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1946 → 1999
$854
$100 in 1999 → 1946
$11.70
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1999
Between 1946 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 754.4%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1999: the 1946 dollar
lost 88.3% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1999 at the same ratio, 8.54: $1,000 becomes
$8,544, and $10,000 becomes $85,436.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1999
$1.00
$8.54
$5.00
$42.72
$10.00
$85.44
$20.00
$171
$50.00
$427
$100
$854
$500
$4,272
$1,000
$8,544
$5,000
$42,718
$10,000
$85,436
$100,000
$854,359
$1,000,000
$8,543,590
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1999
Between 1946 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 1904.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 281.7%, against 754.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$854
Medical care
5.82%
$2,005
Transportation
4.15%
$865
Food
4.07%
$829
Apparel
2.56%
$382
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 1999
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 1946–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$854
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $214 by
1972, on its way to $854 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $854; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 1999: $100 is worth $854 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1999/